Russian media and telegram channels disseminate information that the man who allegedly starred in the story of the French AFP media from liberated Kherson is a military man from Kyiv who “came to carry out repressions”. It seems that his name is Yevhen Mykolayovych Pondin, and he is the commander of the National Guard company in military unit 3030. They say that this is how the Ukrainian media created “the illusion of support for the liberation of Kherson by the Ukrainian military”. Some media wrote that "Ukraine brought extras to Kherson for staged events". It is not true.

As StopFake writes, the man who appears in the AFP report from Kherson, liberated by Ukrainian troops, is indeed a Kherson resident. On the same day, he gave an interview to the film crew of the “Nastoiashcheie vremia” (Current Time) TV channel. Fact-checkers using facial recognition technology found several profiles of this man in social networks, confirming the name, age of the man and that he lives in Kherson. In the military unit No 3030, where the man allegedly "serves", they refuted his belonging to this unit.