On March 9th, Russian troops bombed the Mariupol Children’s Hospital and Maternity Home. According to local authorities, 17 people were injured, and three were killed. Photos of the wounded were widely circulated on social media, but since March 10th, Russian media outlets have reported that the photos, which show people injured in the airstrikes, were fabricated by Ukrainians. According to the Russian media: RT на русском, Новости Первого канала, the role of a pregnant woman was played by a Mariupol blogger. According to their story, the photos spread by Ukrainians show the same girl.
The information disseminated by the Russian media that the role of a pregnant woman injured in the bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol was played by a blogger is false. Mariana from Mariupol was indeed in the maternity section of Mariupol’s 3rd Hospital at the time of the air raid, and on March 11th, photos of her newborn were released on the internet.
On March 11th, Ukrainian journalist Olga Tokariuk tweeted about a Mariupol pregnant girl, noting that she had given birth to Mariana Podgurskaya and was feeling well. The journalist also wrote that they were still in Mariupol at this time, and they did not have heating.
Photos of Mariana from Mariupol and her newborn were also shared on social media.
On March 10th, in order to prove that the blogger was not pregnant, Russian media outlets reported that the blogger created her telegram channel (@gixie_beauty) on February 25th, and her account did not feature any pictures that would prove her pregnancy.
In fact, Mariana Podgurskaya has two Instagram accounts, one of which is her personal account (krevvetochka), and the other (gixie_beauty) she uses to give advice on self-care. It is noteworthy that she has posted photos of her pregnancy on her blog as well.
More importantly, the picture published on March 11th also shows the blogger’s partner – Yuri Vyshemirskij. Her partner is also featured in other photos of Mariana.
Notably, Yuri Vyshemirskij has posted different photos of Mariana’s pregnancy on his Instagram account.
As for the Telegram account, Mariana clarified that she decided to sign up on Telegram on February 25th because Instagram was working with delays.
At the same time, Russian media outlets claimed that all three photos released by Ukrainians, which showed pregnant women, showed the same person, Mariupol blogger – Mariana Podgurskaya. In addition, they argued, it was impossible for her to be in the polyclinic as the clinic was occupied by the Azov Battalion at the time. After observing the footage, it becomes clear that the photos actually show two different people. The Ukrainian fact-checking platform Stopfake has devoted an article to this as well.
On March 10th, Russian media also reported that the airstrikes on the Mariupol N1 maternity hospital were carried out because it was used as a firing spot by the Azov Battalion, and no patients were present in the building at that time. In fact, Russian military forces attacked Mariupol Hospital N3. The hospital combines a maternity ward and a children’s polyclinic, and patients were present at the time of the attack.
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