At the end of July 2025, photographs of a young man who came to a protest rally in Kyiv with a Pomeranian and a poster “I am a dog, and Zelensky is a dog,” circulated on social networks. It is reported that a case was opened against the demonstrator under the article of cruelty to animals. We have verified the accuracy of this news.
Telegram channels publish two photographs of a young man with a dog, who allegedly participated in recent protests in Kyiv. On them, next to the Spitz, you can see a poster with an offensive inscription about Vladimir Zelensky. The footage is often accompanied by a photo of a court summons that allegedly came to the activist after participating in a protest - according to investigators, the use of a dog during a political rally can be regarded as cruelty to animals. As Telegram channels clarify, in accordance with the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the suspect faces punishment ranging from a fine of UAH 50,000 to imprisonment for a period of three years.
News about the case brought against a Kyiv activist was published by Telegram channels “Solovyov"(241,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Ne.Sugar"(204,000), "Uncle Slava" (172,000), "Putin on Telegram"(160,000), "Voblya • news"(123,000), "Emergency / Crimea"(130,000), "Rhymes and news"(78,000), etc.
July 23 in major cities of Ukraine started protests against the bill adopted the day before, which deprived the country's two main anti-corruption bodies of independence: the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP). In accordance with the new law, control over their activities was to be transferred to the Prosecutor General. The next day, in response to mass discontent among citizens, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky contributed A bill restoring independence to anti-corruption bodies is being considered by parliament. Verkhovna Rada accepted its July 31st.
The photo of the summons, which is distributed by Telegram channels, indicates that the Dneprovsky District Court of Kyiv summoned a man to a hearing on July 29 in a case of cruelty to animals. As explained further, cruelty was shown towards a Spitz dog, which the suspect took with him to the rally on July 24. The name of the recipient of the summons and his address are blurred out in the photograph.
Visually, the agenda looks like official documents Ukrainian courts, however, there are a number of differences. For example, the form does not contain the signature of the responsible person or the seal of the court. At the top of the document, administrative records are reported, and a certain set of numbers is also visible, but this cannot be the case number. Firstly, it has 13 digits, and in other matters Dneprovsky District Court only nine. Secondly, judging by the open YouControl database, the numbers of cases considered in this court begin with the number 12, and in the picture - with the number 22. Moreover, if the first hearing was to take place on July 29, some documents should have already appeared in the public domain, but on the court page in the YouControl database and the official website Ukrainian judicial system there is no corresponding entry.
Moreover, in Ukrainian legislation there are two offenses related to cruelty to animals - they are described in Article No. 89 of the Administrative Code And Article No. 299 of the Criminal Code. According to the signature at the top of the supposed summons, the activist was charged under an administrative article, but the following valid reasons for absence And consequences of non-arrival comply with the Criminal Procedure Code. If the authors of the viral publications are right and the man is still tried under an article of the Criminal Code, the summons does not contain the relevant data. In particular, in it must be indicated a procedural action in which a person is summoned to court to participate, as well as the names of the investigator, prosecutor and judge, their signatures and the location of the hearing. Although the address of the Dneprovsky District Court itself is given correctly, as a rule, in this column indicated the room in which the hearing will take place, as well as the name and surname of the judge.
In addition to formal errors, the text also contains grammatical ones. Thus, in the right column, the accused is asked to bring a passport to court, but the Ukrainian word “additionally” is written incorrectly: “dadatkovo” instead true "dodatkovo". Fact checkers from the Ukrainian project “Gvara Media” noticed and a stylistic inaccuracy: at the top of the summons, which states the reason for the summons to court, it is reported that the man is accused of cruelty to animals, namely a Spitz dog. It is unlikely that such an accurate description of the dog will be included in the summons - these details are usually indicated only in the case materials. As a rule, our colleagues note, this part of the document does not describe the crime, but indicates the article of which the person is suspected of violating.
As for the pictures of the dog with the poster, a photograph of the Spitz lying on the paving stones appeared on the Internet on July 24, at the height of the protests. The earliest post that was found by "Verified" posted on social network X user @brazzers_don at 16:44 Moscow time. He accompanied the photo with the Russian-language caption “Base from a dog from Ukrainian protests,” without specifying where it was taken. Another hour later with a photo shared another user X, who reported that it was made in Odessa.
A photo of the dog in the owner’s arms only began to circulate on July 29, along with a photo of the dog and a fake summons. Upon closer examination, it is noticeable that the animals in the two photographs, allegedly taken at the same protest action, are different: the fur of the dog held by the demonstrator is longer and lighter. The difference in the posters insulting Zelensky is even more telling: if in one picture he is wrinkled, crookedly cropped and the size of a Spitz, then in the other he is straight and about half the size.
In addition, both images contain artifacts typical of generated images, for example, people's legs merge with each other, and the background is blurred in some places. Generated content detection tools Hive and Sightengine rated the likelihood that both images were created using AI as close to 100%.
For the first time, a collage of generated photographs and an image of a fake summons appeared in the Telegram channel “Shaman Rahu” on July 29 at 12:46 Moscow time. This channel is often meets in analyzes “Verified” as the primary source and distributor of fakes about Ukraine.
Thus, the story about the summons to court of a Kyiv activist who came to a protest with a dog is completely fictitious. The photos of the man with the animal were generated using AI, and the photo of the summons that was allegedly sent to this non-existent demonstrator contains numerous signs of fraud.
Cover photo: social networks
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