Debunking Russian fakes. No, Ukrainian soldiers are not offered to buy grave sites on cemeteries while they are alive

The information about Ukrainian soldiers being offered to purchase a place in the cemetery while they were “alive and healthy” was circulating online. Our fact-checking department looked into this claim. 

What happened? 

Telegram channels Ukropskyi fresh (Укропский фреш, archive) and Ukrainia.ru (Украина. Ру, archive) that systematically spread Russian propaganda shared the post saying that Ukrainian soldiers are offered to buy out a grave site on the cemetery while they’re alive.

“The issue is that these forms are sent out to everyone — in particular, to those who are healthy and alive. They could also create contextual ads. There would be large demand,” the post says. 

Analysis

As evidence, Telegram channels news offers Viktoria Tretiak’s post on Facebook. 

First, we’ve found this post (archive) published on September 23, 2024. 

Viktoria Tretiak is a people’s deputy for Kryvyi Rih’s city council and the head of the Commission for veterans, families of the dead and missing. In the referred post, she writes that the city council approved the sketch for a typical gravestone for soldiers who died fighting against Russian aggression in Ukraine. She also writes that the city now has to get consent on this proposition from the relatives of the fallen Ukrainian soldiers. 

Besides the Facebook publication itself, the post on Telegram channels has a photograph of the document that was supposedly sent to Ukrainian soldiers. Its quality is very low, and it’s impossible to discern the text—probably to prevent the reader from actually reading anything. 

In Tretiak’s post (archive), the document isn’t about purchasing a grave site on the cemetery but about consent soldiers’ relatives can give on installing a gravestone with a sign of a Cossack Cross using the funds of the Kryvyi Rih’s local budget. 

So, actually, by sending out these documents, the municipal companies survey the relatives of the dead and killed Ukrainian soldiers about whether they want this particular gravestone for their fallen and ask for details about the inscription on it. 

As such, we are dealing with a pro-Russian fake that tries to discredit Ukrainian authorities and promotes a narrative that the Ukrainian state doesn’t need its soldiers and only uses them as cannon fodder.  

Conclusion: Fake 

Author: Vasylyna Haviak