On April 6th, 2022, the Russian “Channel One” published a story about how the Ukrainian blogger Anastasia Savshichyn decided to stage her own death for the camera, allegedly at the hands of the Russian army, thereby “feeding Ukrainian propaganda” about the events in Bucha. The first channel calls the blogger’s actions “cheap hype”.
The screenshot shows two photos next to each other – one shows Anastasia taking a selfie in front of a mirror, and the second depicts a girl killed in Bucha. At the same time, the photo says in English and Russian: “Hello, world! I am Nastya Savchyshyn; I used to live in Bucha. Both photos are mine. During the time of peace, I loved to travel. I was killed by Russian soldiers because I am Ukrainian.”
Identical material was shared by the Facebook page “Народный Контроль” and Facebook user “Anastasia Sabadash.”
The Russian media claimed that the Ukrainian woman decided to take part in the “artificial hype around the murders in Bucha” and that “the resurrection” of “the ruthlessly killed” Ukrainian woman “harmed the Ukrainian propaganda.”
The claim disseminated by the Russian media that the Ukrainian woman decided to stage her own death is disinformation. The inscriptions above the photographs do not correspond to the original and are fabricated.
In fact, the screenshot is fabricated and Anastasia Savchyshyn published her Facebook post with different text in English and Ukrainian. The photos of the original post published by her say: “Hello, world! I am Nastya Savchyshyn; I am Ukrainian. My photo is on the left. The photo on the right could be me. It could be any of us. Raped and killed by Russians just because we are Ukrainians.”
Below is an illustration of how Channel One’s version does not match the author’s original post:
| Text on the original post | Fabrication of Channel One |
| “Hello World. My name is Nastia. I’m a Ukrainian. My photo is on the left. The photo on the right could have been me. Could have been any of us. Raped and killed by russians just for being Ukrainian.” “Привет, мир! Я – Настя Савчишин, я украинка. Моя фотография слева. На фото справа могла быть я. Мог оказаться любой из нас. Изнасилованные и убитые русскими только за то, что мы украинцы.” |
“Привет, мир! Я – Настя Савчишин, я жила в Буче. Обе фотографии мои. В мирное время я любила путешествовать. Я была убита русскими солдатами, за то, что я украинка“.
[Hello world! My name is Nastya Savchyshyn. I used to live in Bucha. Both photos are mine. During peacetime, I loved to travel. I was killed by Russian soldiers just for being Ukrainian.] |
Notably, Anastasia published the post on April 4th at 11.47, and on April 5th, made changes to it. Both in the edited and original posts, Anastasia writes that the second photo could have “been any of us.”
Later on, Anastasia published a second post in which she explained that the Russian media fabricated her post, calling it a fake.
And for clarification, she writes that she is alive, and the post was made so that “foreigners would understand what situation Ukraine is in.”
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