Is it true that the gas company from Lviv posted a notice “Russians will not be able to get into your house through an ordinary gas pipe”?

In March 2025, a photograph of an advertisement was distributed on Telegram channels and social networks, with the help of which in Lvov they were supposedly fighting panic among local residents that arose due to the operation of the Russian military near Kursk. We have verified the authenticity of this photo.

The viral photo allegedly shows several advertisements in one of the offices of the Lvovgaz company. The inscription on one of the sheets reads: “Attention! The Russians will not be able to get into your house through an ordinary gas pipe, it is small! Stop calling emergency services!” This photo was shared on Telegram “For real"(375,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Newsach / Dvach" (242,000), "Observer"(222,000), "Uncle Slava» (216,000) and other channels, collecting a total of about 4 million views. Similar posts also appeared in Facebook, "VKontakte", X, Instagram and on some news websites.

The authors of many publications with a viral image specified that the alleged panic among Lviv residents is associated with the so-called Operation "Flow", which the Russian army spent at the beginning of March. It was reported that a group of Russian military personnel went behind the lines of the Ukrainian group in the occupied part of the Kursk region, passing about 15 km along the Urengoy - Pomary - Uzhgorod pipeline, which previously supplied gas to Europe. Kremlin reported about the successful operation and promised to nominate its participants for awards, while the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces insiststhat the attempt of Russian special forces to penetrate into Sudzha through a gas pipeline was unsuccessful and led to huge losses Russia.

Contrary to reports from Telegram channels writing about the panic that followed the operation among residents of Ukrainian cities, Verified was unable to find traces of it in the media, statements by officials or the Ukrainian-language segment of social networks. The search for a photograph of the viral ad taken from other angles was also unsuccessful.

There are several questionable details in the photo itself. Firstly, the ad located directly above the viral one mentions August 15, although Operation Flow, which allegedly provoked mass calls to Lvivgaz, occurred in early March 2025. This announcement is about the campaign “Your energy independence” (“your energy independence” - Ukrainian), which the company Naftogaz of Ukraine carried out from August 15 to September 30, 2020. It is unlikely that the campaign announcement from five years ago is still hanging in the gas service office. It is much more likely that the basis for the viral image was a photo taken in 2020.

This hypothesis is confirmed by another poster located to the right. A reverse image search showed that the original announcement informed citizens about quarantine measures during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: “Dear clients! A quarantine restriction has been introduced on visiting Customer Service Centers. During this period, maintenance is carried out remotely.”

Finally, "Verified" was found original photo that was used to create a fake. It was published on September 7, 2020 on Google Maps in the section with a photo of the object “Consumer Service Center of PJSC Lvovgaz”. In the original image, the announcement we are interested in is a continuation of the top information sheet about the “Your Energy” campaign.

Among other things, the mention of the Lvovgaz company in the comments to the edited photo is a clear anachronism. From September 1, 2023 she deprived licenses for gas distribution in the Lviv region, this function was taken over by the national operator Gazseti. However, the object on Google Maps has not yet been renamed, and this is probably why the creators and distributors of the fake made a mistake in their publications. 

The spread of the image began in the pro-Russian Telegram segment on March 12, 2025. The earliest publication that "Verified" could be found was posted at 12:10 Moscow time in the channel "Shaman Rahu"(9600 views). He constantly publishes false information and this is not the first time mentioned in this capacity in “Verified” reviews.

Thus, the announcement about Russian soldiers in gas pipes is fake. An image with fictitious text was superimposed on top of a photo taken almost five years ago, and the gas distribution company that allegedly made such a request to customers actually ceased operations back in 2023.

Cover photo: Telegram

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

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