On April 24 several Russian and Ukrainian media (Lenta.ru, RIA Novosti, Gazeta.ru, Russian Newspaper, Vzgliad, Obozrevatel, Ukrainian News, Bigmir.net) falsely reported about a Ukrainian athlete with such headlines as, “Ukrainian Sportswoman Came to Awards Ceremony with the Flag of the Donetsk People’s Republic.”
The reports claim that Olesia Honcharenko attended the awards ceremony of the World Hand-to-Hand championships in Moscow recently wearing the flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
There is also a video:
https://youtu.be/OX491GrhnXA
However, the news is fake. The Ukrainian national hand-to-hand fight team did not participate in the world championship in Moscow.
“Our All Ukraine Organization does not work with the so-called World Hand-to-Hand Fight Federation in Moscow,” the head of the All Ukraine Hand-to-Hand Fight Federation, Yuriy Radchenko, told OstroV. “We have no relations; we do not take part in those championships; and our national team has never participated in them officially.”
Radchenko added that he doesn’t know Honcharenko and that she had not been delegated officially to those competitions.
“Only we could delegate her officially. We are the official Federation with national status and we have the right to develop hand-to-hand fights in Ukraine. We do not work with that federation. So this can either be an individual action or a provocation. It’s difficult to tell. We have nothing to do with her participation in that championship.”
