At the end of February 2025, the Russian media and Telegram channels distributed a nourishing photograph of a Ukrainian, who, according to them, was fame almost three years ago thanks to a meeting with the British Prime Minister during his visit to Kyiv. We checked the truthfulness of this news.
As reported in publications, Sergey Varchuk died at the front line near Kurakhov, who in April 2022 was very Emotionally He met Boris Johnson on one of the streets of Kyiv during the visit of the British Prime Minister to Ukraine. The video in which the Ukrainian heartily thanks the policy for the help of the warring country and admits his love for the United Kingdom, at one time became viral, and pro -Russian resources suggested that the Barchuk, an actor who was no longer a chance before Johnson and President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, who walked along the street cordoned out.
They told about the alleged death of Varchuk "Arguments and facts","Russian newspaper","Sibruy.ru"As well as Telegram channels"Gossip"(331,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Zerada"(224 000), Colonelcassad (205,000), "Uncle Glory"(185,000),"Countess with a changed face pond"(126 000) and others.
“Verified” did not find information about the death of an Armed Forces of the Armed Forces named Sergey Varchuk either in February 2025 or earlier. There is no complete base of military losses in Ukraine today, however, volunteers collect data on the dead military on sites of projects such as "Memory memory platform","Ukrainian memorial" And Ualosses. Neither there nor other reports on Ukrainian -speaking resources were able to find a victim of war with that name.
Also, “verified” did not find information about the death of a person whose photo with a mourning ribbon spreads with Russian -speaking resources.
Person recognition service Pimeyes When trying to find other photos of the same person refers only to numerous pictures of the Czech actor Vladimir Yavorsky. However, now the artist is much older than the allegedly dead military in a viral photo.
A rather strong difference in appearance between a person from a mourning picture and the Kyiv interlocutor of Johnson is also striking. He, too, looks clearly older than the “dead fighter”: on his forehead a more noticeable bald spot, wrinkles near his eyes, his hair is graying, and his nose is large and curved.
He is indirectly talking about the age of a person on the video about children and grandchildren in a conversation with Johnson. In the Ukrainian media, the name of the passerby was not reported, he also did not introduce himself to the video. The Pimeyes service identifies it as a person who in 2017 I went out To the action in support of Mikhail Saakashvili in Kyiv. It is easy to believe in this - there was enough time since then, the man could slightly turn gray. In addition, Saakashvili and Johnson are largely shared by the same political views, the former British prime minister not so long ago Congratulations Ex-President of Georgia Happy Birthday. Therefore, it can be allowed that the Ukrainian supporting one of the politicians respects the second.
Questions are also raised by the design of mourning photography. The frame and background are identical in that the newspaper uses in its necrologists "Kirovogradskaya Truth".
And among these necrologers there is a photograph that almost coincides - with the exception of facial features - with a viral picture. On it, reports Kirovograd Pravda, depicts a native of the Kirovograd region Leonid Bailukwho died in the fall of 2023 in the Donbass.
Obviously, the photograph of Bailuk was digital processing, as a result of which the portrait had a new “face”. Also, the Kirovograd Pravda logo was removed from the picture. Representatives of the newspaper confirmed the publication "Ukrinform"That such a mourning image, although it was made in their style, did not appear in their news feed, there were no human necrologues with the specified name.
The earliest mention of the death of Sergei Varchuk, along with the viral photo, “Checked” found in the pro-Russian Telegram channel “Front -line soldier", Where it appeared on February 26 at 13:42 Moscow time.
Thus, the encircled news has all the signs of a fake: a person from the video of 2022 is not like a person from a mourning photograph, the name indicated in the signatures is not found in the lists of the dead, and the picture itself is a fake created on the basis of a real photograph of the murdered soldier.
Photo on the cover: social networks
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