Users of social networks that spread pro-Russian rhetoric are spreading information that, due to a shortage of electricity, Ukrainian television is allegedly calling on “all unmarried women to move to bachelorhood”. A video is also being circulated online of a news program presenter saying: “The message continues to be important. Due to the heat and electricity conservation regime, all unmarried women are asked to move into bachelors. Please do not ignore this question and be sure to pass it on to your loved ones. Studio”.

In fact, the message being circulated online is not true, and the video itself has been edited. Using a reverse image search on Bing, StopFake specialists were able to establish that a news release from the First City TV Channel.Kryvyi Rih was used to create this fake video. On the screen is Natalia Boldunska, who regularly hosts a news program. The fact-checkers looked through all the news releases with Natalia’s participation, but they were never able to find such a “story”. This video was probably created using a neural network.

The fact that the video was deliberately edited for propaganda purposes is also indicated by the illogicality of the “presenter’s” language. At the end of the video, it can be heard saying: “Studio”. Typically, such an appeal can be heard from correspondents during live broadcasts, and not from the host who is most in the studio of the new program. The very advice to unmarried women to move into bachelors during a power outage is a joke and has been spreading online since at least October 2022.

This video was first published on his Telegram channel by the famous pro-Kremlin propagandist Simeon Boikov, better known by his online nickname Aussie Cossack. StopFake has repeatedly drawn attention to Boikov’s propaganda activities: he regularly distributes false content about Ukraine. Also, Australian media previously reported that Boikov was hiding in the Russian consulate after a Sydney court issued a warrant for his arrest in December 2022. A man is accused of attacking a pro-Ukrainian protester.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to show that the Ukrainian authorities and Ukrainians do not want to solve problems at all, but are running away from them. In particular, this also applies to power outages. However, in reality it is Russia that should be in them, since it is destroying Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.