Photos of elderly women carrying firewood are circulating on social networks, with captions that German pensioners are supposedly preparing for winter because of problems with gas. This is manipulation.

In fact, in the photo are Russian pensioners. Fact-checkers of the MithDetector project found that the photos were taken in 2018-2019 by Russian photographers to illustrate materials about whether the Russians will have time to prepare for winter. Despite the fact that Russia is trying to blackmail the West with gas supplies, many regions of Russia are still not connected to the gas supply system, so they must prepare firewood for the winter.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European countries are really trying to find alternative sources of energy instead of Russian gas. Alternatives include harvesting firewood and acquiring wood-burning stoves. Demand for wood stoves in Germany has doubled compared to last year. In the past, less than 6% of Germans used wood for heating, but this year the number is likely to arise.