In May 2025, media and Telegram channels spread the news of the death of Isaac Velichko, who became famous several years ago thanks to a video in which he complains that he wants a chocolate bar. We have verified the accuracy of this story.
Publications about the death of Isaac Velichko, the hero of a popular Internet meme, went viral on May 22. Media and Telegram channels wrote that a young man at the age of 19 died as a result of being hit by a drone during the fighting in the Donetsk region. It is noted that Velichko ended up at the front by concluding a “youth” contract with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. A post-mortem photograph of a young man is used as evidence.
They wrote about the death of the hero of a popular meme Life.ru, Lenta.ru, "Russian newspaper", "Arguments and facts", News.ru And EADaily, as well as Telegram channels "Operation Z: military correspondents of the Russian spring"(553,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Dmitry Nicotin"(338,000), "Leprosy"(117,000), Rus_criminal (112,000), "Kot Kostyan - official channel"(81,000), etc.
Isaac Velichko became famous after participating in the Ukrainian TV show “Kokhana, mi vbivaemo detey” (“Darling, we are killing children”). In one episode aired in 2016, he emotionally complained about not sharing chocolate with him. The fragment went viral on the Internet and became a viral meme. At the time of his participation in the show, Velichko was ten years old; now he is 18 or 19.
Media reports and Telegram channels emphasize that Velichko joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the “Contract 18–24” program. She allows Ukrainians under the age of 24 voluntarily enroll in one-year service, choosing a specialty and unit. The contract provides for payments of up to UAH 1 million and social benefits - from free education to housing rental compensation. Volunteers before going to the front must pass a total of three months of training - a 45-day basic course, two weeks of specialty training and another two weeks of adaptation in a military unit.
Program earned On February 11, however, the Ukrainian authorities stated that, despite the large number of applications, not everyone gets to sign the contract (in April, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Pavel Palis shared, that only about 500 people serve under the “Contract 18–24”). About the oath of the first recruits under this program of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported only March 9th. That is, even if we assume that Velichko applied immediately after the start of the program, quickly passed the test and took the oath, he could only be on the battlefield, taking into account three months of preparation, by the end of May, and information about his death began to spread already on May 22.
The only evidence that Velichko died at the front is a photograph that presumably shows the grown-up hero of the popular meme. It is placed on a black background along with a memorial candle.
“Verified” was able to find only one profile of Velichko on social networks - page on VKontakte, which has not been updated since 2017 (in the same year the platform blocked in Ukraine). Last photo young men were also posted there in 2017.
A reverse image search on Google showed that Velichko's supposed post-mortem photo was only being circulated in the context of news of his death. Facial recognition service PimEyes I couldn’t find any other photographs of this person on the Internet - considering that the face is clearly visible in the photograph and it is of normal quality, this is an unusual result. “Verified” also did not find the young man from the viral photo in the photos and videos that Ukrainian Armed Forces units publish on social networks, talking about recruits under the “Contract 18–24” program.
We analyzed the portrait using Hive And DeepFake-o-meter — tools for recognizing content created using AI. Both showed that with a high probability the image was generated by a neural network.
It can be assumed that even if the photo was generated, the information about the death of Isaac Velichko is correct. However, in databases Among the dead Ukrainian soldiers who are being led by volunteers, there is no person with the same name and surname, and there are no obituaries in the local media about the death of the young man.
Reports of Velichko's death initially spread in the Russian-language segment of Telegram. The earliest post with an alleged posthumous photograph of a young man that Verified was able to find was posted in the channel “Shaman Rahu” on May 22 at 13:35 Moscow time. Then the picture went viral on social networks, including popular Ukrainian Telegram channels, and got into the media. "Shaman Rahu" often mentioned in analyzes “Verified” as the primary source and distributor of fakes about Ukraine.
On the evening of the same day, when the news about Velichko’s death went viral, information appeared on Ukrainian Telegram channels that the young man’s sister refuted his death. Although "Verified" was unable to find a public statement from the girl, soon appeared video allegedly showing Velichko. “Here is a man about whom they are shouting all over the Internet that he was killed in the war. Isaac, how are you doing? — the author of the video asks the young man.
After the refutation, some Telegram channels and media outlets deleted the news about Velichko’s death at the front or published notes stating that the information was not confirmed. However, the majority left their publications unchanged.
Since the launch of the “Contract 18–24” program, Russian media and Telegram channels often write about methods of its promotion in Ukraine, and such messages often turn out to be fabricated. Also distributed fakes about the death of young people who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine under this program.
Thus, there is no evidence that Isaac Velichko from the chocolate bar meme died in the war in Ukraine. This information appeared in pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, and the only evidence was a photo generated by AI.
Cover photo: collage "Checked"
- Is it true that the girl who was the first to sign a contract with the Ukrainian Armed Forces under the program for recruiting young Ukrainians died at the front?
- Is it true that an advertising video was released in Ukraine estimating payments for signing a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine “in cheeseburgers”?
- Is it true that an advertisement was released in Ukraine offering to join the army for a subscription to Netflix and game currency in Roblox?
- Is it true that the hero of the TikTok video about cleaning the general’s garage died in Avdeevka?
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