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How the Russians tried to justify the attack on the Kharkiv “Epicenter” in TikTok

11.6.2024
2
min read

The Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers continues to work on the rubric “Is it really?”, where it will verify the authenticity of certain manipulations of information by contacting the original source and communicating with eyewitnesses.

Disinformation campaign in tiktok

Recall that on May 25, after lunch, the Russians hit the construction hypermarket “Epicentrum” in the residential district of Kharkiv. More than 200 people were in the building at the time of the attack. IN Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office reported that after the completion of emergency and rescue work, the number of deaths increased to 17 people. Thirteen victims were identified, including 10 supermarket workers and three visitors. 48 people were injured. Five people remain missing.

Photo by Vladislav Krasnoshchek

However, on the day of the tragedy and several subsequent ones, experts on the social network “TikTok” Institute of Mass Informationnoticed a campaign of fakes that Ukrainian military equipment was located in the Kharkiv “Epicenter” before the Russian shelling. As proof of this, the authors of the video showed a photo that appeared in 2022. It seems to depict military equipment in the Kiev shopping center Retroville”, which Russia shelled on March 20, 2022. IMI analysts have discovered at least five such videos, one of which has been viewed more than a million times.

Screenshot of the Institute of Mass Information of Fake Video in Tiktok

“The fake accounts mostly publish Russian propaganda and disinformation, which may indicate a planned Russian fake campaign about shelling the Epicenter in Kharkiv, as if Ukrainian military equipment was located there. Such fakes are aimed primarily at the Russian domestic audience, they say, Russian troops are shelling only military objects in Ukraine. Also — to a small part of the Ukrainian audience, which tends to trust Russian propaganda,” the Institute of Mass Information said in a statement.

Photo by Vladislav Krasnoshchek

What was at the scene of the impact?

Kharkiv photographer Vladislav Krasnoshchuk, who documented the consequences of the tragedy immediately after the impact during the rescue work, confirms that the hypermarket was an exclusively civilian object.

Photo by Vladislav Krasnoshchek

“I did not see any military or military equipment in the Epicenter during and after the explosion. And what I saw there is in my photos,” says Vladislav Krasnoshchuk. “Dead bodies, fire, the work of the emergency services and how civilians helped rescuers.”

Photo by Vladislav Krasnoshchek

Also, the first hours of the next war crime of Russians against Kharkov were recorded by Ukrainian photographers Oleksandr Magula and Yevhen Gertner. Documentarists' photos show epicenter of tragedy and pain in Kharkiv after enemy plane bombs on hypermarket.

Recall that earlier we wrote about how Russian propagandists use photos of Vlada and Konstantin Liberov to cover up the murder of civilians in Volchansk. And also about how the Kremlin publics thanks to the picture of Pavlo Pakhomenko They try to justify the shelling of a utility company in Kharkiv, pointing out that the destroyed building was a military facility.

The Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers continues to work on the rubric “Is it really?”, where it will verify the authenticity of certain manipulations of information by contacting the original source and communicating with eyewitnesses.

Disinformation campaign in tiktok

Recall that on May 25, after lunch, the Russians hit the construction hypermarket “Epicentrum” in the residential district of Kharkiv. More than 200 people were in the building at the time of the attack. IN Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office reported that after the completion of emergency and rescue work, the number of deaths increased to 17 people. Thirteen victims were identified, including 10 supermarket workers and three visitors. 48 people were injured. Five people remain missing.

Photo by Vladislav Krasnoshchek

However, on the day of the tragedy and several subsequent ones, experts on the social network “TikTok” Institute of Mass Informationnoticed a campaign of fakes that Ukrainian military equipment was located in the Kharkiv “Epicenter” before the Russian shelling. As proof of this, the authors of the video showed a photo that appeared in 2022. It seems to depict military equipment in the Kiev shopping center Retroville”, which Russia shelled on March 20, 2022. IMI analysts have discovered at least five such videos, one of which has been viewed more than a million times.

Screenshot of the Institute of Mass Information of Fake Video in Tiktok

“The fake accounts mostly publish Russian propaganda and disinformation, which may indicate a planned Russian fake campaign about shelling the Epicenter in Kharkiv, as if Ukrainian military equipment was located there. Such fakes are aimed primarily at the Russian domestic audience, they say, Russian troops are shelling only military objects in Ukraine. Also — to a small part of the Ukrainian audience, which tends to trust Russian propaganda,” the Institute of Mass Information said in a statement.

Photo by Vladislav Krasnoshchek

What was at the scene of the impact?

Kharkiv photographer Vladislav Krasnoshchuk, who documented the consequences of the tragedy immediately after the impact during the rescue work, confirms that the hypermarket was an exclusively civilian object.

Photo by Vladislav Krasnoshchek

“I did not see any military or military equipment in the Epicenter during and after the explosion. And what I saw there is in my photos,” says Vladislav Krasnoshchuk. “Dead bodies, fire, the work of the emergency services and how civilians helped rescuers.”

Photo by Vladislav Krasnoshchek

Also, the first hours of the next war crime of Russians against Kharkov were recorded by Ukrainian photographers Oleksandr Magula and Yevhen Gertner. Documentarists' photos show epicenter of tragedy and pain in Kharkiv after enemy plane bombs on hypermarket.

Recall that earlier we wrote about how Russian propagandists use photos of Vlada and Konstantin Liberov to cover up the murder of civilians in Volchansk. And also about how the Kremlin publics thanks to the picture of Pavlo Pakhomenko They try to justify the shelling of a utility company in Kharkiv, pointing out that the destroyed building was a military facility.

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