In September 2024, the video spread in social networks: supposedly the artist Nikita Kushnir, who lives in Poland, voluntarily amputated his leg to raise funds for the Ukrainian army. We decided to find out if such publications are reliable.
The video with the EURONEWS channel logo began to spread through Telegram channels on September 9, 2024. It says that Ukrainian artist Nikita Kushnir became the first man in Poland to go through the voluntary amputation of the limb. Kushnir supposedly suffers from a violation of the integrity of the perception of his own body. This is a mental disorder in which physically healthy people feel an irresistible desire to gain disability - usually to lose one or more limbs. Thanks to their ailment, they say in the video, Kushnir managed to obtain permission to amputated. Taking this opportunity, the artist wanted to collect € 1 million to support the wounded fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but with the help of streams and charitable events, he managed to attract no more than € 3000.
According to TGSTAT, in Telegram the posts about Kushnir collected more than 6.5 million views. Among the most popular records are publications in channels "Live broadcast"(858,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"KB +18"(323 000), Colonelcassad (269,000), "Russia now"(264 000),"Uncle Glory"(227 000),"Zlaya Prof"(209 000),"Observer"(206 000),"Bottle"(189 000)," Putin in Telegram "(twice - 187 000 And 185 000) And Zergulio (142 000). Information diverged on other social networks (X, Facebook, "VKontakte") And even got into the press - for example, in"Moscow Komsomolets".
Syndrome of violation of the integrity of the perception of your own body (BIID) - existingbut a rather rare pathology. She is still poorly studied (the first Systematic research published in 2004) and was included only in the 11th version International classification of diseases (MKB-11), which entered into force in 2022. Typically, few recorded cases of amputation of healthy limbs with Biid cause a stormy discussion both in the press and in the professional community (as well as scandals and accusations of violation of medical ethics). The most famous example is two operations that Completed The same surgeon in the same Scottish hospital in 1997 and 1999 (at that time it caused an international Discussion about the ethics of the procedure), and the most recent - Amputation of two fingers The patient with this syndrome in Canada. If today such an operation really took place in Poland, it would also become the subject of discussion, if not in wide circles, then at least among doctors. However, neither in the Polish news resourcesnor in English -speaking news “Verified” did not find any information about the amputation of the leg from the Ukrainian artist. The only Polish -speaking publication told about the alleged act of Kushnir is the pro -Russian site News-pravda.com. There this news was published with reference to the Russian-speaking Telegram channel Neinsider.
In a viral video, which, apparently, is exclusively from stock videos, the face of Kushnir is not shown and any details from his biography are not given. “Verified” could not be found on social networks accounts of the Ukrainian artist living in Poland with that name. We also could not find traces of streams, during which, as stated in the video, Kushnir collected money for the Armed Forces.
"Verified" also studied the verified EURONEWS accounts in Instagram, Tiktok, X And Facebookas well as official website TV channel and its profile on YouTube. On these resources there is no video about the action arranged by the Ukrainian artist. In addition, the viral video is significantly different from the content that Euronews publishes on social networks. So, the channel usually shows the face of the hero, speaker or author of the plot, and also uses the sound path with his comment, while subtitles are an auxiliary function. Moreover, the subtitles themselves in the genuine EURONEWS rollers are designed differently - the font that we see in the video about Kushnir usually uses only in the screensaver.
The earliest publication with the viral video, which managed to detect "verified", appeared in the Telegram channel "Kostyan Cat - Official Channel"(141,000 views). Previously "verified" It was repeatedly convicted This channel is in the publication of inaccurate messages.
Thus, the EURONEWS channel did not publish a video about the Ukrainian artist who amputated his leg to collect donations in favor of the Armed Forces. Authoritative Polish and international publications did not talk about this story, but for the first time a video that has signs of falsification appeared in the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, which had previously repeatedly spread misinformation.
“Verified” has already repeatedly dismantled fake videos that mimicize the news stories of the world's largest media. Many of them were aimed at discrediting Ukraine and Ukrainians. So, at the end of 2023, Russian-speaking Telegram channels distributed A fake video about the Ukrainian refugee, supposedly detained in Paris for trying to copulate with sculpture.
Photo on the cover: Pexels
Read on the topic:
- Meduza. Lost your leg, find yourself. How Russian "voluntary amputants" live - people who want to lose their limb
- False authorities. How BBC has become a favorite brand for the creators of fake videos
- Is it true that on the Euronews channel there was a report on the Ukrainian who damaged the sculpture in Paris?
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