BBC News did not release such a story. The boy in the photo is named Roman Oleksiv — he received burns as a result of a Russian missile strike on Vinnytsia in 2022.
Citing the BBC News video, pro-Russian resources are spreading the news that during a visit to Ukraine, Prince Harry allegedly met with a child who was presented as a war victim by medical personnel — in reality, the boy allegedly was injured in a fire set by a drunk mother.
This is yet another malicious fake of Russian propaganda. BBC News did not publish such a story either on their website or social networks. The propagandists edited the video from stock footage themselves and began distributing it through propaganda sources. The video also includes a screenshot of a news story about a fire in which a boy was allegedly injured — however, it is clear from the full text that the circumstances of the incident do not coincide with those stated in the publication. Most notably, it is reported that as a result of a fire in a residential building in Lviv, which broke out in May 2024, the owner, born in 1956, was injured. He refused hospitalization, and nothing was mentioned about a child being injured as well.
The story of the boy who met Prince Harry is well known and documented in the media. This is ten-year-old Roman Oleksiv, who on July 14, 2022 was hit by a Russian missile strike while waiting with his mother to see a doctor at the Neuromed clinic in Vinnytsia. It is especially cynical that in their fake, the propagandists accused the boy’s mother of drunken arson — when in reality the 29-year-old woman died on the spot as a result of the missile strike. Roman received burns on 45% of his body, including the most severe, fourth-degree burns. The boy spent a hundred days in intensive care, during which he underwent 27 operations. When the child’s condition stabilized, Roman was sent for treatment in Dresden. In September, the boy and his father returned to Lviv, where he is currently undergoing rehabilitation, and at the end of last year he was allowed to remove the mask he had to wear to prevent scar growth.
We have already refuted a similar fake, with which propagandists tried to discredit the testimonies of children affected by Russian aggression, in the article Fake: Ukrainian Boy Testifies in The Hague that his Father Was «Eaten by Russians».
