The Russian media spread the video with grammatical errors in the accompanying text, which appears to have been written by a person who does not speak Ukrainian. In addition, propaganda announced matches that do not correspond to the official Premier League schedule. In a comment to StopFake, the Ukrainian Football Association also denied the information spread by Russian media.
Kremlin-controlled media and social media users have started spreading false information that the Ukrainian Football Association (UAF) supposedly acknowledged the death of 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers. This alleged “confession,” according to the propaganda, was made during announced matches played in empty stadiums, symbolizing the “presence of the souls of the fallen.” As evidence, a video is attached, purportedly published on the official UAF YouTube page under the Shorts section.
“The Ukrainian Football Association announced matches in memory of 300,000 fallen soldiers. The post was immediately deleted. Several sources managed to copy the message and spread it,” writes “Glavny regionalny.”
In reality, the information is fake. The UAF did not announce such matches and did not acknowledge the death of 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers. The video published on behalf of the association is a fake, indicated by several factors.
Firstly, the text overlaid on the video contains grammatical errors untypical for native Ukrainian speakers.
Secondly, the authors of the fake video announced an incorrect schedule of matches. According to the “announcement,” three matches of the Ukrainian Premier League were planned: “Shakhtar – Dnipro-1,” “Metalist 1925 – Krivbas,” and “Minai – Oleksandriya.” They were supposedly scheduled to take place on June 6, 7, and 8, respectively. However, according to the current schedule, the matches “Shakhtar – Dnipro-1” and “Metalist 1925 – Krivbas” are supposed to take place on May 28-29. Additionally, the teams “Minai” and “Oleksandriya” have already played their matches and are not supposed to meet this season.
Thirdly, the agitprop claims that the UAF’s “announcement” was “immediately deleted.” However, we noticed that the fake video indicates that it was supposedly “liked” by 1,000 people and received over 2,000 comments. Such figures also indicate that the video is a fake since the most popular video (as of May 16, 2023) on the UAF’s official YouTube channel in the Shorts section has gathered 1,000 likes and 46 comments. Moreover, it was published over a year ago on February 26, 2022.
We also reached out to the Ukrainian Football Association and officially received a denial of the reports from Russian media regarding the “announcement of matches in memory of 300,000 fallen soldiers.”
“This is fake information that does not correspond to reality and is a Russian provocation. It is not posted on any official UAF platform,” the association stated.
Earlier, StopFake debunked information about the supposed “enormous losses” of the Ukrainian army and the death of 234 instructors from the United States and the United Kingdom.
