In mid -September 2024, messages were dispersed on the Web, according to which Ukrainian diplomat Nikolai Khomenko suffered as a result of mass explosions of communications in Lebanon. We checked the reliability of this news.
In the second half of September 2024, numerous explosions of communications took place in Lebanon and Syria, which were used by members of the Hezbollah armed group. First wave, during which the pagers massively detonated, began on September 17 at about 15:30 Moscow time and continued, according to various sources, from 30 min. to hours. The next day exploded radio and other electronic equipment. By data Livan’s Ministry of Health, as a result, at least 32 people were killed in this country in this country, and more than 3,000 were injured, the victims among the civilians, including children, reported. Iranian news agencies declaredthat the ambassador of Iran suffered to Lebanon Mojtab Amani, but nothing of his life Not threatening. Hezbollah assigned responsibility for attacks on Israel. According to sources The New York Times and other media, the operation was carried out by Israeli intelligence, but the president of the country of Yitzhak Duke denies Israeli involvement in explosions.
Already in the evening of September 17, publications appeared on the Web that in Beirut, the first secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Lebanon Nikolai Khomenko was wounded in Beirut explosion. Some of these records contain a short Arabic video. According to the TGSTAT service, at the time of writing this analysis, at least 240 posts about the alleged wound of Khomenko were published in Telegram. So, this was written about this Telegram channels "Russia now"(215,000 views),"Ukraine.ru"(146 000), Alex Parker Returns (127,000), "Typical Odessa"(109,000),"Ostashko! Important"(102,000) and other channel"The world today with "Yuri Podolyak""(1.8 million views) referred to the recording of the channel"This is another"(68,000 views), which also mentioned the wound of the Ukrainian diplomat in Beirut. Many similar posts are posted on VKontakte (examples here, here And here). Notes on the allegedly injured Khomenko issued Russian publications "Tsargrad","Another Ukraine" And "Ukraine.ru", As well as Israeli resources, including the site"Details" And Newsru.co.il (The latter clarified that the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine did not comment on this information and that the information is checked).
The publications that the Ukrainian diplomat was injured in Beirut in the explosion of a pager was published in different languages. For example, on social networks X there are similar tweets on English, German, Italian And Spanish. English -speaking records with thousands of views are posted in Telegram (here, here And here). Some resources mentioned at the beginning of this analysis referred to unnamed Lebanese media, and similar posts and Notes In Arabic, they really meet on the network. For example, in the X the earliest Arabic -speaking tweet about Khomenko (among those that was able to track "verified") appeared at 18:53 Moscow time in the account @Roaastudies (18,000 views). Telegram has a post in Arabic, which appeared a minute earlier - it was placed by the publicist Alexander Nazarov (6200 views). However, the earliest publication with the mention of the wounds of Khomenko, which was found “verified”, was released in the Russian-speaking pro-Kremlin Telegram channel ”Sheikh Tamir"(185,000 views), where the post appeared at 18:32. This channel mentioned In more than 170 of our analysis and dozens of times it became the primary source of misinformation.
The post "Sheikh Tamir" is accompanied by a video that lasts only 8 seconds. It is a parallel gluing of several different videos (one on the left and two on the right), while in the lower part of the combined record there is an Arabic -speaking titer, which says: “As a result of the explosion of the communication device, the secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Livan Mikola Khomenko was injured.” In the upper right corner is the logo of the Iraqi television channel Al Rasheed TV.
"Verified" studied website Al Rasheed and channel accounts in social networksBut there was no such video about Khomenko. Moreover, the viral video only at first glance looks like the media materials of the Iraqi media. For example, the design of the video is partly reminiscent of a preview of some video In social networks of the channel, but another design is used in the records themselves. “Verified” sent requests for comments to the press service of Al Rasheed, but at the time of publication, this analysis did not receive a response.
The video clips shown in the viral video themselves are in no way connected with the secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine. September 17th social networks And Media These records separately were used to demonstrate the consequences of explosions of electronic devices. On that day, Al Rasheed shared these videos (for example, in X, Tiktok And on YouTube). In the version of the Iraqi television channel, they were mounted one after another (another episode was also added there), and the total duration of the video was 62 seconds. In the Telegram channel Al Rasheed post with this entry appeared At 17:02 - an hour and a half before the publication of the Sheikh Tami. At the same time, the signature of the Iraqi media said: “Scenes from Beirut after an explosion of wireless communication devices,” and Khomenko was not mentioned. In addition, in the official video, Al Rasheed used branded animations and a closing screensaver, which are absent in a viral video.
The Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine called reports of the wound of Khomenko Fake. “Having verified the information at the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and the Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon, the center reports that among the dead and wounded there are no Ukrainian diplomats or citizens of Ukraine. Russian propaganda spreads such fakes in order to accuse Ukraine of cooperation with terrorist groups and sow distantly from the international community, ” - claims Ukrainian department.
Thus, there is no direct evidence that a Ukrainian diplomat was wounded in Lebanon during the explosion of Pager. Apparently, this information originally appeared thanks to the Russian Telegram channel, more than once convicted of the spread of fakes. The Ukrainian authorities also deny that their diplomat was injured in Beirut.
*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Instagram and Facebook, an extremist organization, its activities and symbolism in Russia are prohibited.
Photo on the cover: social networks
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