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In April 2025, Russian-speaking media and Telegram channels reported the death of an actress who allegedly portrayed their compatriots in reports of various Ukrainian journalists. We checked the reliability of such publications.
Messages that Elena Savelyeva died in the war zone in the Donetsk region spread on April 22. If you believe the media publications and Telegram channels, the girl played dozens of characters for Ukrainian propaganda. Three of her roles are named as examples: a soldier with a call sign of a witch, Odessa citizen, struggling using the Russian language, and refugees from Toretsk - and screenshots from the corresponding reports of Ukrainian television channels are also given, where Savelyeva is represented under various names. The resources that have spread this information emphasize: the story of the girl demonstrates how Ukrainian media falsify their publications.
They wrote about the death of Savelyeva "Russian newspaper","Moscow Komsomolets" Lenta.ru, News.ru, Life.ru, "Arguments and facts" And "Tsargrad"(twice), as well as Telegram channels "Bad news 18+"(221,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Colonelcassad (190 000), "Uncle Glory"(176 000),"Observer"(169,000),"Ukraine.ru"(124,000),"Special operation z"(125,000) and others.
The authors of viral publications are stingy with the details of the biography of Savelyeva. It is known that the girl was a military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, died in April 2025 near Pokrovsky (some resources indicate the old name of the city - Krasnoarmeysk). At the same time, “verified” did not find reports about the death of a soldier named Elena Savelyev. bases The dead Ukrainian military, information about which volunteers collect information about, nor in the Ukrainian media.
The posthumous portrait of the deceased
As evidence of the death of Savelyeva, a black and white photograph of a girl in a blue frame with a black ribbon in the right corner against the background of a landscape in the colors of the Ukrainian flag is given. The same design of memorial shots uses newspaper “Kirovograd Pravda”, which from time to time publishes the necologists of military personnel born in the Kirovograd region. The only difference is that the newspaper, as a rule, indicates its logo on the left side. In addition, it is not clear why the editors laid out the necrologist about Savelyeva-in viral posts it is not reported about any connection of the girl with the Kirovograd region.
On the website of Kirovograd Pravda it was not possible to find this photo or Notes About the death of Savelyeva. “Verified” analyzed the black and white portrait of a girl without a proprietary publication framework through a service to identify AI-Contain Deepfake - O - Meter. Many tools he used have shown that with high probability this photograph was generated by artificial intelligence.
In addition, "verified" Not the first time is encountering With a similar fake. At the end of February, the pro-Khremlin publications and Telegram channels reported the death of a man who, almost three years earlier, emotionally thanked for the help of Ukraine British Prime Minister Boris Johnson during an accidental meeting in Kyiv. Then, as evidence, the image created by the neural network was also used, designed in the style of the photonecrologists “Kirovograd Pravda”.
Armed Forces of the Armed Forces
One of the roles of Savelyeva, according to viral posts, was a Ukrainian soldier named Maryana with a call sign of a witch. Judging by the logo in the left of the upper part of the screen, the plot about it was released on the ICTV television channel.
Find the plot about this girl on site And YouTube channel ICTV failed, other Ukrainian media also did not write about the soldiers with such a name and call sign. Reverse search by Google has led to an almost identical picture, published In November 2023, on the website of the Ukrainian magazine DTF Magazine. In two images, everything coincides (pose, stripes, position of the hands, microphone, the surrounding environment, etc.), except for the face of the military. Apparently, he was replaced through the photo editor.
The original image published by DTF Magazine is a screenshot from plot Kharkov media "falling in." In July 2023, his journalists published a report on women in the Ukrainian army on YouTube. The serviceman from the screenshot is called Svetlana, she is a signalman from the Kharkov region. In the video, she talks about her service in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, about motivation and life before the beginning of a full -scale war.
Round Odessa and refugee from Toretsk
In the case of the next two roles of Savelyeva - Odessa citizens of Ksenia and Torechanka Olesya - a reverse search for screenshots in Google shows only publications of Russian -language resources about the death of a girl.
“Verified” managed to find a report, the screenshot of which became the basis of the picture with Ksenia from Odessa. It in April 2022 Published On YouTube, the local publication "Duma". In the plot, journalists interview Odessa citizens about whether the city needs to get rid of Russian toponyms and imperial monuments. As in the case of Maryan’s soldier, the heroine of this video was changed.
Although we could not find the primary source of the image with the Torechanka Olesya, it, apparently, was forged as much as the previous two. It is very likely that when editing original screenshots, AI was used, but since only fragments of images were changed, some detectors (for example, the same Deepfake - O - Meter) give out conflicting results. “Verified” turned to Hive, another service to identify content generated by AI. The analysis showed a high probability that both images were processed by a neural network. The result for a screenshot with Odessa Ksenia is 99.9%. In the case of Olesya from Toretsk, Hive estimated the probability of using AI in 76%, but if you cut the logo of the TV channel and the running line in the lower part of the screen, then it grows to 96.5%.
Other roles of Savelyeva
Some Telegram channels are also attributed Savelyeva, the role of a mortally wounded soldier, who is trying to reanimate another soldier. "Checked" Disassembled This fake earlier - actually in the video that became viral in early March, shows the shooting of a music clip. Maryana Chechlyuk took part in them, which before the beginning of a full -scale invasion worked The investigator in Mariupol, during the battles outside the city, was hiding in the territory of the Azovstal plant, and after an unsuccessful attempt to pass filtration arranged by the Russian military, spent two years captive. In May 2024, the girl was released as part of the exchange, and she returned to Ukraine.
The history of the allegedly dead actress spread And in the social network X, whose users recognized in Savelyeva a Ukrainian soldier who participated in an operation in the Kursk region. In the attached picture, the girl is captured in the city of Suzha against the backdrop of the Pyaterochka supermarket, next to which many APU fighters were photographed and which is in connection with this attracted Particular attention of the pro -Kremlin media. Some bloggers even write about some curses "Pyaterochka" - Allegedly, all the military who starred at the store subsequently die. The same legend spread to the non -existent soldier Elena Savelyev.
Photo of a girl on the background of a store appeared Back in August 2024, shortly after the start of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region. Although it was not possible to establish the personality of the girl, she is definitely not connected with the portrait, which, we repeat, is highly likely generated by AI.
The story of Savelyeva, although it got into English -speaking The X segment, spread mainly in the Russian-speaking pro-Kremlin media and Telegram channels. The first post on this topic appeared April 22 at 13:04 Moscow time in the Telegram channel "Shaman Rahu", after which he dispersed through other resources. It is noteworthy that the original source made a mistake in the surname (“Savelvev”) and that it is in this form that it occurs in some publications. Telegram channel "Shaman Rahu" is far from the first Mentioned In the analysis of “tested” as a distributor and primary source of fakes about Ukraine.
Prochremlin media and bloggers regularly accuse the Ukrainian and international media of falsification of the war reporting. It began at least with impact on the maternity hospital In Mariupol in March 2022, in April of the same year they called (and still called) Video with murdered civilians in Buch. More recently "verified" Disassembled The publications that the same actress took part in the deutsche Welle reports on the occupation of the Kyiv region in the spring of 2022 and on the impact on sums in April 2025-these are in fact two different women.
Thus, the history of the Ukrainian actress Elena Savelyeva, who allegedly filmed in Ukrainian propaganda videos about the war, was invented. Part of the photos of the girl is generated with the help of AI and subsequently edited for more believability. The originals of some pictures depict other Ukrainian military.
Photo on the cover: social networks
Update dated May 2, 2025. In the section on the role of indigenous Odessa citizen, information about the source was added. The previous version of the analysis can be found Here.
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