In May 2025, the media and Telegram channels distributed the news about the death of Isaac Velichko, who became famous several years ago thanks to a video in which he complains that he wants a chocolate. We checked the reliability of this story.
Publications about the death of Isaac Velichko, the hero of the popular Internet meme, dispersed on May 22. The media and Telegram channels wrote that a young man at the age of 19 died as a result of a drone during the battles in the Donetsk region. It is noted that Velichko turned out to be at the front by concluding a “youth” contract with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. As evidence, a posthumous photograph of a young man is used.
The death of the hero of the popular meme was written about the death Life.ru, Lenta.ru, "Russian newspaper","Arguments and facts" News.ru And Eadailyas well as Telegram channels "Operation Z: Warrixes of Russian Spring"(553,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Dmitry Nicotin"(338 000),"Leprosy"(117 000), Rus_criminal (112 000), "Kostyan Cat - Official Channel"(81 000) and others.
Isaac Velichko I became famous After participating in the Ukrainian television show “Kohana, Mi driven by Die” (“Beloved, we kill children”). In one of the episodes, published in 2016, he emotionally complained that they did not share chocolate with him. The fragment dispersed over the Internet and turned into a viral meme. At the time of participation in the show, Velichko was ten years old, now he is 18 or 19.
In the messages of the media and Telegram channels, it emphasizes that Velichko joined the Armed Forces under the program “Contract 18–24”. She Allows Ukrainians under the age of 24 voluntarily enter the annual service, choosing a specialty and unit. The contract provides for payment of up to 1 million UAH and social benefits - from free education to compensation for rental housing. Before sending to the front volunteers Must pass In total, three-month training is a 45-day basic course, two weeks of training in the specialty and two more weeks of adaptation in the military unit.
Program I earned February 11, however, the Ukrainian authorities stated that, despite the large number of applications, not everyone reaches the signing of the contract (in April, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Pavel Palis SharedThat only about 500 people are serving under the “Contract 18–24” contract). About the oath of the first recruits under this Armed Forces program Reported Only March 9th. That is, even if we assume that Velichko submitted an application immediately after the start of the program, he quickly passed the audit and took the oath, to be on the battlefield, taking into account three -month preparation, he could only by the end of May, and information about his death began to spread on May 22.
As the only evidence that Velichko died at the front, they give a photograph in which, supposedly, a matured hero of the popular meme is depicted. It is placed on a black background along with a memorial candle.
“Verified” managed to find only one Profile 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 The young men are also laid out there in 2017.
The reverse search by images in Google showed that supposedly the posthumous photo Velichko spreads only in the context of the news about his death. Person recognition service Pimeyes I did not find other pictures of this person on the Internet - given that the photograph is clearly visible in the photo and it is in normal quality, this is an unusual result. “Verified” also did not find a young man from a viral picture in the photo and video that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are published on social networks, telling about the recruits under the program “Contract 18–24”.
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 is generated by a neural network.
It can be assumed that even if the photo was generated, then the information about the death of Isaac Velichko is true. However, c databases The dead Ukrainian military who lead the volunteers, there is no man with such a name and surname, and in local media there are no necrologues about the death of a young man.
Messages about the death of Velichko initially spread in the Russian -speaking segment of Telegram. The earliest post with the supposedly posthumous photograph of the young man, who managed to find "verified", was Placed In the channel "Shaman Rahu" on May 22 at 13:35 Moscow time. Further, the picture became viral in social networks, including in popular Ukrainian telegram channelsand hit the media. "Shaman Rahu" often Mentioned In the analysis of “tested” as the source and fake distributor about Ukraine.
In the evening of the same day, when the news of the death of Velichko became viral, information that the sister of the young man appeared in Ukrainian telegram channels Disputed His death. Although “verified” failed to find a girl’s public statement, soon appeared The video, which is claimed, is shown Velichko. “Here is a person about whom they shout on the whole Internet that he was killed in the war. Isaac, how are you doing? " - asks the young man the author of the video.
After the refutation, some Telegram channels and the media deleted the news about the death of Velichko at the front or released notes 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 the methods of its promotion in Ukraine, often such messages turn out to fabricated. Also spread fakes About the death of young people who joined the Armed Forces under this program.
Thus, there is no evidence that Isaac Velichko from a meme about chocolate died in a war in Ukraine. This information appeared in the proxy Telegram channels, and the only proof was the photograph generated by AI.
Photo on the cover: The collage is "tested"
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- Is it true that in Ukraine they issued an advertisement offering to go to the army for the sake of subscribing to Netflix and the game currency in Roblox?
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