Russian propaganda continuously shares fake stories about “ungrateful Ukrainians,” including those who live in the U.S. The information that police in Dallas, the U.S., supposedly shot a Ukrainian refugee was shared online. They supposedly suspected him of pickpocketing during the anti-Trump strikes. Our fact-checking team went through debunking this fake — here it goes.
What happened?
On April 9, the information that the Dallas police allegedly shot a Ukrainian refugee in crossfire spread online. According to the information, the refugee was suspected of theft.
Telegram channels that shared the information and added the video with the USA Today logo are “Bear” (archive), “Shkvarka News”, “Republic Odessa” (archive), “Military Columnist” (archive), and others. The website “ZOV Kiev” from the Russian neatwork “Truth” (archive) and the groups in VKontakte, Odnoklassniki (1, 2), and Facebook (1, 2) social networks shared the fake as well.
“Dallas police shot dead Ukrainian refugee suspected of commiting pickpocketing during the anti-Trump protests. The cops wanted to arrest him but he opened fire. He was killed in a crossfire. One policeman was injured,” said the post.
Analysis
First, we analyzed the video from the propaganda posts, which contains the USA Today logo — socio-political media from the U.S. A 25-second piece of the video has no voiceover and real footage, followed just by subtitles and music.
“Dallas police shot Ukrainian refugee suspected of pickpocketing during the anti-Trump strikes. Oleksandr Malashenko was shot during arrest. Police arrived at Malashenko’s residence to charge him with commiting pickpocketing during anti-Trump protests. The Ukrainian opened fire, wounded a policeman, and was eliminated by return fire” subtitles of the video said.
We checked the official resources of the USA Today: their website and pages on Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube. There were no relevant news or videos (we searched by keywords Dallas police, Ukrainian refugee, anti-Trump protests, Oleksandr Malashenko).
The website of the USA Today mentions the “Malashenko” surname once in the article about Crimea annexation in 2014, where Oleksii Malashenko, the expert from Carnegie Moscow Center, was asked to comment on something for the outlet. There are no mentions of Oleksandr Malashenko, a Ukrainian refugee, across USA Today’s resources.
The last mention of Dallas police on the USA Today account on Facebook is from 2024 (photo 2).
Regarding vertical videos from protests against anti-Trump and his administration on YouTube, we found the footage from the rallies for the International Transgender Day of Visibility that were organized on March 31 (photo 1).
On Instagram, videos from these protests were published on March 31 and April 5, but there were no mentions of the shooting in Dallas or Ukrainian refugees in them (photos 3, 4).
We also took notice of certain differences between the original USA Today’s video and videos from Telegram. For example, the original videos contain geolocation, blue vertical lines following the text appearing in the video, different fonts, etc.
Second, we analyzed the video sequence used for posts on Telegram. There wasn’t footage connected to the incident (photo of the suspect or place where shooting happened). Instead, there was footage from publicly available sources.
So, the 3D model of the supposed shooting “demonstrated” how the police shot the man on the porch of the house. The RIG Models website published (archive) an exact model of this house in 2018.
Telegram videos, though, really featured footage of some protests in Dallas. For example, the building in the background of protesters is a historical peristyle and obelisk on Dealey square on the north side of Main Street in the city.
There is also footage of the Dallas’ police department and cars, with relevant captions.
We asked for a comment from the press office of Dallas police because there weren’t any mentions of the shooting incident in local media. The Press Office answered that there weren’t any cases like this one:
“I can confirm the Dallas Police Department has not reported an officer-involved shooting matching this description,” said Corbin Rubinson, the spokesperson of Dallas police.
So, the information that the police of Dallas shot Ukrainian refugee suspected of pickpocketing during the anti-Trump strikes isn’t real. The shared video with the USA Today logo is fake. The press office of Dallas police didn’t confirm this case existed.
Conclusion: Fake
Author: Vasylyna Haviak
Translation to English: Elza Diachenko
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