Russia’s Defense Ministry television channel Zvezda published a story claiming that Lviv’s Alfa Jazz Fest, Ukraine’s premier Jazz festival was to be cancelled because of the rubbish collection problem the city is grappling with. Zvezda’s fake story is based on a view expressed by Ukraine’s former Minister of Health Oleh Musiy.
In an interview with the Ukrainian National News Agency Musiy said that uncollected rubbish in Lviv posed a danger to people’s health and he would not recommend that people travel to Lviv. Cancelling the festival would be the right thing to do in view of the garbage problem, he said.
StopFake reached out to the organizers of Alfa Jazz Fest to inquire about the festival’s cancellation. Olha Kondratiuk, the festival’s public relations spokeswoman told us there were no plans to cancel the festival, the question was not even up for discussion.
Although Zvezda claimed in its headline that the festival was to be cancelled, in the body of the story the authors explain that this is only a recommendation by a former minister. This did not stop the Russian agency Sputnik from republishing the fake story almost word for word.
The current acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun visited Lviv to assess the situation and ascertain whether the uncollected rubbish posed a health hazard. In a Facebook post Suprun wrote that while the center of Lviv was free of rubbish, the outlying areas had many piles of uncollected garbage. Suprun said that she saw no grounds for declaring an emergency situation in Lviv.
