New Russian fakes about Ukrainian forces: Funeral video with McDonald’s ad music, abuse of minor

Russian media outlets, pro-war Telegram channels, and bot accounts on the social media platform X are spreading a video allegedly showing the funeral of a Ukrainian service member. The video caption reads “Just how you wanted it, bro” accompanied by hamburger emojis, and features music from a McDonald’s Big Tasty commercial. The claim is that the deceased was a young soldier who had wished to be buried to the jingle from the fast-food ad.

This is fake. The footage is actually from the funeral of a 55-year-old Ukrainian soldier, who had been a biker in civilian life. In the original video — shared by the soldier’s daughter — the music played is rock, specifically a song by AC/DC.

Additionally, Russian disinformation channels circulated a screenshot allegedly from a Ukrainian regional news site, claiming that a soldier in Poltava had been convicted of assaulting a 13-year-old boy.

This is also fake. The Russians altered the headline of a legitimate article published by Regionews.ua. The convicted person was a civilian from Kharkiv, and the crime occurred in summer 2022. He had no connection to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

These fabrications aim to discredit Ukrainian soldiers and undermine public trust in the military. Russia’s objective is to devalue the image of Ukrainian heroes and manipulate public opinion to portray service members as threats rather than defenders.

Earlier, Russian propaganda forged a news story about a Ukrainian soldier’s alleged involvement in a shooting in the Lviv region.

Andriy Olenin