Debunking Russian fakes. No, this Ukrainian brigade doesn’t “exploit drivers with disabilities” 

Discrediting the Ukrainian army and its brigades is a narrative Russian propaganda systemically pushes in their messages. This time, they spread a fake about the 154th Mechanized Brigade exploiting drivers with disabilities. As evidence, their posts on Telegram offered photos from Facebook pages that aren’t, in any way, connected with 154th and are most likely AI-generated. The pages are also moderated from Indonesia.

Let us walk you through the way our fact-check department debunked this claim. 

What happened? 

Telegram channel Ukropskii fresh (archive 1, 2) published two posts in two weeks with news about the 154th Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “recruiting and exploiting drivers with disabilities.” As evidence for the claim, authors post screenshots of Facebook posts on which we see photos of people with prostheses, seemingly soldiers of the said brigade. 

“In the 154th brigade, all drivers who received [a disability confirmation] remain in the unit and continue to do their duties. Apparently, the brigade commander organized a special unit where [disabled] people are working,” the post says. 

Analysis

First, we found Facebook posts Telegram authors refer to and analyzed the pages of their authors  (1, 2). 

Facebook posts don’t mention either the 154 brigade or personal information about the people in the photo. Text in both of them is manipulative and has similar phrasing: 

“I am a disabled driver, today is my 30th birthday, and no one wishes I was well,” or “I am a disabled driver. Today is my 28th birthday. And there’s no one who’d say “Happy birthday” to me.” 

We’ve found several (archive 1, 2) similar Facebook posts from these accounts, with the same text but different photos. 

Both pages are anonymous and were created in the summer of 2022. Rihcart‘s page, one of the “military drivers” Facebook accounts Telegram authors refer to, has the address of London Street, London, United Kingdom, and the phone has the UK code. According to the Transparency section, Rihcart’s page is moderated from Indonesia.   

The other page, Robin new (archive), is also moderated from Indonesia. 

“Doubled” facial features of “soldiers” in the photos, the blurred backgrounds, anomalies in body proportions, irregularities in the balance of light and shadow on people, etc., suggest that the photos are most likely AI-generated. We’ve checked the photo in the AI or Not service and their algorithm came up with the same conclusion. 

Texts and photos on both pages aim to emotionally impact the reader: motivate them to support these soldiers in a difficult moment, congratulate them on their birthday, console them, and so on. They gather thousands of likes and dozens of comments.  

For our next step, we wrote to the 154th Mechanized Brigade via their official Facebook page. We’ve got confirmation that the shared news is a fake. 

“If a person with a prosthesis decides to join defending Ukraine, then we’ll give them a job they’ll be comfortable doing, a job in which they’ll be useful for their team and state.”  

So, pro-Russian Telegram channels’ claims about the 154th brigade “exploiting drivers with a disability” is a fake aimed to discredit the Ukrainian army and the command of the said brigade. 

Conclusion: Fake 

Author: Olha Yakovleva

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