The Facebook account “Georgian Conservative”, which often shares posts containing disinformation (1; 2; 3), published a photo with the following caption: “A video appeared where a policeman pours blood on a doctor’s coat from a children’s hospital. This is footage of a children’s hospital being bombed in Ukraine.”
In the video posted by the Facebook account, a man dressed in white scrub can be seen, behind whom a policeman is standing and pouring artificial blood. With the mentioned video, the propagandists indicate that after the bombing of the “Okhmatdyt” hospital, the photo published on their Facebook page showing the doctor with bloody clothes is staged.
On July 8, 2024, the “Okhmatdyt” children’s hospital published pictures on Facebook, where the situation after the bombing by Russia was captured. One of the photos shows a doctor wearing bloody clothes.
In reality, not the doctor’s photo distributed by the hospital, but the video distributed by “Georgian Conservative” is staged to discredit Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian fact-checking organization “StopFake” verified the mentioned information. They state that the video was staged by the Russians, but they missed a few details and because of this it is confirmed that this information is forged.
“Okhmatdyt” hospital has published only one image of the doctor, where he is seen from the back. However, other photos can also be found. For example, Ukrainian journalist Kristina Berdynskykh published a photo of a doctor from a different angle on social media.
The first difference – in the video released by the Russians, the “doctor” is wearing different shoes:
– Doctor’s shoes from a photo of a Ukrainian journalist
– Doctor’s shoes from a video shared by Russian-language accounts
The second difference – the people in the photos and videos are wearing different clothes. For example, in the photo published by “Okhmatdyt”, the doctor’s pants have a pocket on the back, and the shirt has a seam. However, the clothes of the “doctor” in the video does not have such details.
– Photo from “Okhmatdyt” Facebook page
- Screenshot from the forged video
The third detail – a policeman. Center for Countering Disinformation of Ukraine points out several inaccuracies while citing the Ukrainian police. First, the “policeman” is wearing boots, while Ukrainian policemen use sneakers. Ukrainian police draw attention to the actor in the video that he “forgot” to wear a belt with weapons, field radio, pharmacy, etc. In addition, he affixed a chevron with the symbols of the National Police in violation of the rules of wearing a uniform.
Thus, the disseminated information is forged.
