In August 2024, screenshots of announcements allegedly posted on the Ukrainian OLX service appeared on the Web. They depict Orthodox icons, which are allegedly exported by the Ukrainian military from the Kursk region. We decided to check the authenticity of these images.
Images of stolen icons with comments in the spirit “These are the trophies from the Kursk region” began to spread on August 21. Posts with screenshots and insulting comments on Ukrainians appeared, for example, in channels "Uncle Glory"(206,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Falcon"(195 000),"Soldier of good luck"(125,000) and"Tsargrad-TV"(67 000).
Armed Forces invasion of the Kursk region of Russia It began On the night of August 6. Armed units broke through the border posts and began to advance in several directions at once. At the time of writing this analysis of Ukraine continued Control dozens of settlements in the Kursk region.
The most common selection published by Telegram channels consists of five supposedly stolen icons. Each image is a screenshot of the page from the Ukrainian OLX ads service.
The first announcement depicts the icon of St. Nicholas. The screenshot in the description of the goods indicates that this is a trophy from the Kursk region.
With the help of a google back search by the images “verified” it was found Original announcement On OLX. In the upper line, instead of the “Kursk Region / Kursk” subsection, the city of Konotop of the Sumy region is indicated. On the right in the description there is no mention of the Kursk region and trophy origin of the icon.
The second announcement allegedly offers to acquire an antique old icon of the 18th century from Kursk (although they did not reach the Russian regional center of the Armed Forces during its operation). Below, the indication of the origin is repeated: "A unique icon from the Kursk region."
In this case, “verified” also found Original announcement. It indicates that this is the icon of the New Testament Trinity, and they sell it in the city of Zaporozhye. There are no indications of the Kursk origin again. It is noteworthy that the announcement is compiled in Russian, but in the edited version the text is replaced by Ukrainian.
The third icon looks more modern than the previous ones. The viral picture indicates that this is an icon from Kursk, and below in the Ukrainian -language description it is said: “Seraphim of Sarov. You can pray, you can resell, you can do anything. This is from the Kursk region. "
IN original announcement There are no these outlets on OLX. It says that this is the healing icon of Seraphim of Sarov, and in the lower part the miraculous properties are listed, which the image of the Monk Hieromonk supposedly possesses. The announcement was placed by the user from Kyiv on July 24, two weeks before the APU invasion of the Kursk region.
The fourth icon is the Mother of God with a baby in a golden salary. The viral picture on the right describes: “Trophy, Kursk region. Ancient icon. " In the lower part - addition: “The ancient icon of the Mother of God, brought from the Kursk region. Trophy. There are 12 more icons in stock. "
As in previous cases, in This announcement There is not a word about Kursk on the Ukrainian service. Judging by the subsection, the icon is sold in Kremenchug.
Finally, the fifth icon, also with the Mother of God, allegedly also brought from Kursk. And below the description states that all funds from sales will go to the aid of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
IN This announcementAs in other cases, Kursk is not mentioned, the user from the Lviv region sells the icon.
All fake ads are united by one technical detail: in the upper line the last two subsections - this is the Kursk region and Kursk. However, for OLX, the search allows you to choose only Ukrainian regions - under the letter K, the Kiev and Kirovograd regions, as well as Crimea, are represented on the site.
Thus, all five ads spreading on the network are fakes created on the basis of real pages of the OLX service. The authors of fake images changed the accompanying inscriptions to the photographs, indicating that the icons were allegedly taken out of the Kursk region. The prices for icons were also edited (in most cases they grew) and a line with sections of the site in the upper part of the images.
The earliest mention of the stolen icons along with the corresponding images that was found “verified” is a post in the Telegram channel ”Release Kraken!"(66,000 views), published on August 21 at 18:04 Moscow time. This channel repeatedly mentioned in our analysis as one of the sources of distribution fake messages And images.
Photo on the cover: social networks
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