At the beginning of November 2024, the media and social networks distributed a photograph allegedly taken in one of the post offices of Poltava. We have verified the authenticity of this photo.

As reported, residents of Poltava “took the salvation of Ukraine into their own hands” by organizing a collection of money for the contract killing of US President-elect Donald Trump. The motive was his negative position regarding military and financial assistance to Ukraine from the American budget. As evidence, two photographs of a collection can were cited, allegedly located in an unnamed post office in Poltava.

They wrote about this “Arguments and facts", "Moskovsky Komsomolets", Life, 39.ru, "Morning South"and other Russian-language media. The photo was actively distributed thanks to channels such as “Russia now"(205,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Putin on Telegram"(175,000), Voblya (142,000), "Gasparyan" (107,000) and "Egor Mislivets"(94,000).

“Verified” found no traces of the dissemination of this news in the Ukrainian media and Telegram channels, although that is where, logically, it should have spread first. In the Russian-language segment of social networks, two photographs are circulated together, taken, judging by the situation, at approximately the same time. The collection of a large amount, limited to one small jar in one specific branch of Ukrposhta, looks strange, to say the least.

Both photographs were taken close-up, which virtually eliminates the possibility of their geolocation. A 10 UAH (about 25 US cents) bill sticks out of the jar - a comical amount for the declared purposes. Next to the jar you can see a leaflet with the title “How the amount of housing subsidy is calculated” in Ukrainian. Like newsletter posted in the official account of the Pension Fund of Ukraine (PFU), it is easy to download and print on a printer. As for the box on which the jar and the newsletter are located, “Verified” did not find any photographs with similar equipment taken at Ukrposhta or PFU branches. Boxes with similar slot installed at Russian Post branches.

Fact checkers from the StopFake project contacted contact the Ukrposhta press service for clarification. They replied: “Not a single employee of the company has anything to do with what is happening in the image.” A representative of the national postal operator noted that the photographs were not taken at the Ukrposhta branch, since, firstly, their branches are not equipped with furniture of this type, and secondly, there are no advertising or information materials on the Ukrposhta premises that can be seen in the photo.

According to TGStat, the first to post these photographs with corresponding captions was the pro-Russian Telegram channel “Crossbow says» November 7 at 17:05 Moscow time. He repeatedly mentioned in analyzes “Verified” as one of the sources of dissemination of misinformation.

All these indirect data indicate that this photograph is highly likely staged and was not taken at the Ukrposhta branch.

Cover photo: social networks