Photos of a man with a bunch of Nazi tattoos are circulating on social networks. Particularly with the swastika. The text circulating along with the photo says that the photo is of Ukrainian Vadym Troian, a former head of the Kyiv police.

However, this is not true. As Correctiv analysts have found out, the bald man in the photograph is not Vadym Troian, but a Russian neo-Nazi from St. Petersburg Oleksii Maksymov. At the same time, Ukrainian Vadym Troian was mentioned in the media when he was appointed as a chief of police in Kyiv in 2014. He has been repeatedly called a right-wing extremist, but he is not in the photo on the Internet.

According to analysts, fake photos have been circulating online since Troian was appointed as a head of the agency in 2014. It is beneficial to distribute such propaganda’s photos as confirmation that Ukrainians are Nazis. Earlier, photos of two men with Nazi tattoos, allegedly depicting Ukrainian refugees in Rijeka (Croatia), were distributed on social networks. In some reports, the photo served as an excuse for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.