On September 26, a reader of Detector Media drew our attention to a post in a propaganda Telegram channel with nearly 510,000 subscribers. It claimed that starting October 1, Russian-speaking passengers would no longer be served on public transport in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. As a source, the post attached an image bearing the logo of another Telegram channel, Nashe Prykarpattia. However, over the entire period of its existence, that channel has published only five posts mentioning the word “Russian-speaking”, the most recent of which appeared on October 27, 2024. The latest post on the Telegram channel itself was published on September 10, 2025.

*The post used by propagandists appeared on a Facebook page called “Nashe Prykarpattia”, which has the same logo as the Telegram channel. Its authors did not indicate the source of the information.

There have been no publications over the past four months on the websites of the Ivano-Frankivsk City Council, its executive committee, or municipal transport operators about any ban on Russian-speaking passengers using public transport in the city.

This fake has a backstory. In December 2024, a Russian-speaking passenger had a conflict with passengers and ticket inspectors in Ivano-Frankivsk. A hooliganism case was opened against her. During that scandal, Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv promised to step up efforts to inform the public about the use of the Ukrainian language in public spaces.

Even earlier, in the summer of 2022, Ivano-Frankivsk city authorities adopted a decision banning street musicians from performing Russian-language songs. The idea of banning the everyday use of the Russian language in Ivano-Frankivsk exists only in the imagination of Russian propagandists.