Debunking fakes. No, former Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s army didn’t die of cardiac arrest 

We debunked fakes about the death of the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces produced by the Russian propaganda multiple times. This time, the message about his death was shared on Facebook and used as a clickbait. 

What happened? 

We received a request to our Perevirka chatbot to check if it’s true that Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, died of cardiac arrest. The source for the information was an October 12 post on a Facebook page called Ukraine will win news (“Україна Переможе Новини”, archive). 

The headline and this post don’t mention his name, but the post has a black-and-white photo of Zalunzhnyi with a sympathy candle attached.

“[They] reported, 5 minutes ago, he’s left the life because of cardiac arrest,” the short post said. 

Analysis 

First of all, we’ve analyzed the source of the news, the Facebook page. It was created on January 25 and has 199,000 followers. Main and contact information are absent on the page, but its category is “Entertainment.” Information about the page’s administrators is also absent. Facebook shows that the page might have several administrators, and the region from which the page is being moderated is Russia. 

Then, we checked the post about the death of Valerii Zaluzhnyi. To read the full “news story”, users have to click on the call-to-action link, but then they are offered to join an anonymous Telegram channel called “Our news of Ukraine” (“Наші новини України”).

We’ve also figured out that this Facebook page frequently posts pieces in this format. For instance, on October 8 (archive) and September 25 (archive), similar posts appeared. Each of them has the button “Details” (“Докладніше”) and leads the social media users to the previously mentioned anonymous Telegram channel. 

Moreover, this Facebook page contains not only posts about the supposed death of Valerii Zaluzhnyi but also the “death” of the head of Ukraine’s main intelligence agency, Kyrylo Budanov 1, 2).

If the reader wants to find out details, they are offered to join a private Telegram channel called “Corruptioner” (Корупціонер) or the anonymous Telegram channel “Our news of Ukraine.”

How’s Valerii Zaluzhnyi? 

The former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and current Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom is alive. For instance, on October 18, he said on his official Facebook page that he met American diplomat Kurt Walker. Photos of the meeting are attached to the post. 

So, the information about Zalunzhnui’s death from October 12 on the Facebook page is fake and was used for clickbait. Authors post similar fakes to attract audiences to the anonymous Telegram channels and private Telegram groups. 

Conclusion: Fake, clickbait 

Author: Vasylyna Gaviak