On, May 15, Vyacheslav Poezdnik, a blogger and journalist from Dnipropetrovsk, posted a video that shows a Ukrainian soldier cutting up frozen meat with a chainsaw. On the video, one can see the meat has been stamped with the figures “10-01-68.” Poezdnik then comes to the absurd and incorrect conclusion that the meat is from 1968 and is to be fed to other Ukrainian solders.
The Ukrainian and Russian media picked up on the story on May 17, further perpetuating that the meat served to soldiers was 47-years-old. It can be read on RIA Novosti, Censor.net, Ipress and other online resources.
The stamp in fact lists the place of production, and not the date. The three sets of numbers indicate, respectively, the region of production, the district or city, and the exact enterprise. (#10-01-68 indicates the Kyiv region, Belotcercivsky district, the city of Uzin, and LLC Visit.)
The Defense Ministry’s press service issued a statement regarding the misreading of the stamp by the video’s author.
