Neither Euronews nor any other reputable publication has published such news.
Ukrainians in Europe are allegedly illegally connecting to power grids to mine cryptocurrency – this claim, based on an alleged Euronews video, has appeared on several pro-Russian platforms. According to the reports, these Ukrainians are allegedly trying to profit from the rise of bitcoin. It is claimed that over 400 Ukrainian citizens have been arrested for such violations in the last month alone, with their actions allegedly causing power shortages across the continent.
However, this news is fake: no video with such content has been published on Euronews’ official website or social media. Russian propagandists have repeatedly spread false and defamatory information about Ukrainian refugees, often using Euronews’ visual style and logo. For further debunking, see our previous reports. The fabricated nature of this story is evident in several details, such as the vague reference to “Europe” without specifying a particular country where these alleged incidents took place. A search for news of such incidents also turned up no results.
In fact, blackouts caused by illegal cryptocurrency mining are happening in Russia. Vladimir Putin himself has pointed out the sharp increase in electricity consumption in several regions of the country:
“Uncontrolled growth of electricity consumption for cryptocurrency mining could lead to power shortages in certain regions. This is already happening in the Irkutsk Region, Buryatia, and the Trans-Baikal Territory“.
In the Irkutsk region alone, electricity consumption has increased by 172 percent since 2017, largely due to “gray” mining. Additionally, in the Novosibirsk region, a local council member was recently arrested for illegally connecting to the power grid to mine cryptocurrency. His actions caused losses of 6.5 million rubles to Russia’s “regional power grids.”
For more on debunking disinformation related to cryptocurrency, see Manipulation: Ukraine Banned Payments with Cryptocurrency.
