The Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers continues to work on the “Is it really true?” column, where we verify various information manipulations by turning to primary sources and speaking with eyewitnesses.
A disinformation campaign on TikTok
As a reminder, on 25 May in the afternoon, Russians struck the “Epicentr” building hypermarket in a residential district of Kharkiv. At the time of the strike, more than 200 people were inside the building. The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office reported that after emergency rescue operations were completed, the death toll rose to 17. Thirteen victims have been identified—among them 10 hypermarket employees and three visitors. Forty-eight people were injured. Five people remain missing.
However, on the day of the tragedy and for several days afterward, experts from the Institute of Mass Information noticed a campaign of fakes on TikTok claiming that Ukrainian military equipment had supposedly been inside the Kharkiv “Epicentr” before the Russian strike. As “proof,” the authors of the videos showed a photo that appeared in 2022. It allegedly depicts military equipment in the “Retroville” mall in Kyiv, which Russia shelled on 20 March 2022. IMI analysts identified at least five such videos, one of which was viewed more than a million times.
“The accounts spreading this fake mostly publish Russian propaganda and disinformation, which may indicate a planned Russian fake campaign about the shelling of ‘Epicentr’ in Kharkiv, claiming that Ukrainian military equipment was located there. These fakes are primarily aimed at Russia’s domestic audience—suggesting that Russian forces strike only military targets in Ukraine. They are also aimed at a small segment of the Ukrainian audience that is inclined to trust Russian propaganda,” the Institute of Mass Information said in a statement.
What was at the strike site?
Kharkiv photographer Vladyslav Krasnoshchok, who documented the aftermath of the tragedy immediately after the strike during the emergency rescue operations, confirms that the hypermarket was an exclusively civilian object.
“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.”“I did not see any military personnel or military equipment in ‘Epicentr’ during or after the explosion. And what I did see there is in my photos,” says Vladyslav Krasnoshchok. “Dead bodies, fire, the work of the State Emergency Service, and the way civilians helped the rescuers.”
The first hours of yet another Russian war crime against Kharkiv residents were also captured by Ukrainian photographers Oleksandr Mahula and Yevhen Hertner. In the documentary photographers’ images—the epicenter of tragedy and pain in Kharkiv after enemy aerial bombs hit the hypermarket.
As a reminder, earlier we wrote about how Russian propagandists use photos by Vlada and Kostiantyn Liberov to cover up the killing of civilians in Vovchansk. We also wrote about how Kremlin channels and pages, using a photo by Pavlo Pakhomenko, try to justify the shelling of a municipal enterprise in Kharkiv, claiming that the destroyed building was a military site.
This material was created with the support of The Fritt Ord Foundation.
Credits:
Researcher and author: Yana Yevmenova
Photo editor: Olha Kovalova
Literary editor: Yuliia Futei
