Фейк The Ukrainian military destroyed the Church of the Ascension in the Kyiv region
Russian telegram channels spread a fake that the Church of the Ascension in Lukyanivka, Kyiv region, was destroyed by the Ukrainian military after the retreat of Russian troops. This fake Russian propaganda was built on one photo of the Ukrainian army with blue armbands, "posing against the background of a completely undamaged church." It was spread by one of the pro-Kremlin telegram channels, from which the Russian Defense Ministry often reposts information.
In fact, the Russians destroyed the church after the Armed Forces liberated Lukyanivka. According to VoxUkraine, the first reports of the liberation of Lukyanivka from Russian troops appeared on March 24, 2022. "We found photos of the Ukrainian military on a tank near an undamaged church using a Google Images reverse lookup. It is a screenshot of a video published by a Ukrainian fighter on March 25 on his TikTok account. On March 26, in comments, the video's author noted that the church had already been destroyed, " the fact-checkers said, adding that other fighters and the Armed Forces' Strategic Communications Department also wrote about the church's destruction. In particular, the Armed Forces reported that the Russians destroyed the church on March 25 with four shots from a tank. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), to which the church belonged, also claims that a Russian tank destroyed the building on March 25. According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, as of May 27, 133 churches were completely destroyed or damaged due to Russian aggression.