A number of Ukrainian media have published fake screenshots from a social network page. Through this, they have produced a photo of a Russian soldier who is alleged to be involved in war crimes in Donbas.
On June 22, the site Peacekeeper (Миротворец) reported that a certain Dmitri Simonchik, a Russian, fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Screenshots taken from his social network page are presented as proof. Texts accompanying the photos also indicate that Simonchik took part in military operations in the self-proclaimed republics and killed Ukrainian serviceman. He even supposedly posts a photo of a Ukrainian soldier he killed.
Later, Peacekeeper’s administration reported that the false and provocative information had been sent by email (it had been posted on the blog, dmitro66.livejournal.com) in order to “prove the participation of Russian Armed Forces in the war against Ukraine.”
This material was then reposted by Informapalm, Antikor, NovostiUA, and Fakty ICTV.
Indeed, if we look at the captions and dates on Peacekeeper’s site and Simonchik’s social page, we see the discrepancies. A photo of a cat and an automatic weapon, for example, was posted as far back as 2010; but on Peacekeeper’s site, its posting date is 2014 in the Donetsk region.
The fake photo of the murdered soldier is altogether absent on Simonchik’s social network page.
