Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric disseminate information that viral pneumonia is “massively spreading” in the Kharkiv region. As evidence, they add a photo allegedly from a Ukrainian military doctor in an ambulance with people who “get pneumonia”. And they claim that local doctors cannot fully determine what kind of disease it is: they suggest that it may be a form of COVID-19 or another disease. It is not true.

Analysts from the VoxCheck project investigated the case and found out that there are no statistics yet on the number of people infected with any type of pneumonia. Moreover, in the Kharkiv region, influenza and COVID-19 diseases do not exceed the epidemic threshold. And using a reverse search on Google, analysts found the original source of the photo - on Facebook, a military man posted a photo of an ambulance and wrote that he pulled a fellow soldier from the battlefield who had a fever due to pneumonia. According to the author of the message, after treatment the guy recovered and returned to service.

That is, the anonymous people used a reliable photograph that illustrates a military man suffering from pneumonia, but distorted the context in their own way. Allegedly, disease epidemics are approaching in Ukraine.