What does a child look like after a missile attack? How a little girl fell victim to a viral fake

No, the child is not stressed after the missile attack. No, she doesn’t have diabetes. The girl is simply exhausted after a bout of flu. Such misleading videos undermine the truth.

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Once again, tears are flowing from gullible Ukrainians like lemon juice into a cup of tea. A heartbreaking video of a little girl with shaking hands, barely able to hold a spoon, is circulating on social media.

The caption reads: “A CHILD AFTER A ROCKET aTTaCk” and “This is impossible to watch without crying.” A woman’s voice-over says, “Her hands are shaking, she’s started to eat, my poor little one.” This is accompanied by a melancholy melody that will melt even the iciest heart.

The video received 5,650 likes, 17,000 shares, and hundreds of sympathetic comments, just on the “Persha Lisova Sotnia” (First Forest Sotnia-ed.) page. It was shared by many other groups and communities and even appeared on a Brazilian YouTube channel and the account of Jason Smart, an American political strategist and special correspondent for the Kyiv Post. 

But, this video is a fake designed to boost views and casts doubt on the proven evils of war. 

Refutation

We found the original video on the TikTok account of a user named “porodysta”. The channel description reads: “Mum on maternity leave, the best time of my life”.

The video was posted on March 3, 2024. The voice-over is real but without a melody. There is no mention of war or missile attacks. The description only contains hashtags in Ukrainian:  #даринкамандаринка #хворіємо #ранок #снідає #йогурт. (#darynkamandarynka #weresick #morning #breakfast #yoghurt-ed.). The caption on the video reads: “It’s morning, and my poor little thing wants to eat” with a geotag of Radekhiv in the Lviv Region. 

We contacted the author of the channel, Iryna Dolaichuk. She explained that she was blogging about her daughter Daryna. That day, the girl was very exhausted after a high fever from the flu. In the morning, she got up hungry because she hadn’t eaten anything the day before. Her mother gave her some yogurt, which we see in the video. The child’s hands were shaking from weakness after the illness.

“It has nothing to do with the war or the rocket attack. They also attributed it to diabetes, but what can you do? When a video is stolen, and a child’s on top of all that, it’s really getting out of hand,” Iryna says, outraged.

In the comments under the fake video, some users did write that it was all a lie, that the missile attacks had nothing to do with it, and claimed the girl had diabetes.

“This is not a child after a missile attack. Why would you get mixed up in such things? She just had a sugar crash. I saw this video on TikTok, and her mother explained it in the comments,” commented user Valentyna Aleksiichuk. Many others voiced this version as well.

Iryna did clarify her explanation on TikTok. 

In one video, she urges people not to believe everything they read and to block fake videos of her daughter if possible.

“The child was just sick, and the video was stolen, and now they’re blaming everything on the war,” says Iryna.

In another video, she reads aloud a comment from one of the posts with the fake video: “You shouldn’t watch this, it just breaks my heart.” Then she responds:

“Have you actually looked at the real information about where the video came from? This guy isn’t the first to have a video. That’s my child; she was just sick. She had the usual flu. She just wanted to eat some yogurt in the morning. And her hands were shaking. She doesn’t have diabetes! Don’t blame it on the war. How else can I explain to you that this is just not true? Don’t say what’s not there!” 

Motives 

Iryna Dolaichuk recalls that the manipulation with the video didn’t start immediately, but only after it gained many views. As of now, it has 11.4 million views. Initially, the fake was posted on Facebook, and then it spread to TikTok and Telegram. Iryna complained about each of these publications, but the odds were stacked against her — too many people were spreading it.

“All of this is done to boost their channels,” says Iryna. “I wanted to put a watermark, but it was too late to edit the video.”

Iryna’s right. The unscrupulous sharers chose her video for their manipulations because of its wide reach. This was evident because viewers responded to it, making it a prime candidate for fake news. The emotional impact of the video also played a significant role — under the influence of strong emotions, people lose their cool and are easier to manipulate.

Such fake videos are dangerous because, if exposed, they can undermine the credibility of genuine reports about the evils of war. People might begin to think that Ukrainians are lying or exaggerating in other instances as well.

For example, the journalist and political analyst Jason Smart writes next to this video: “Russia has killed thousands of children and abducted tens of thousands of them.” What will his readers think when they find out the video he shared is fake? That’s right! They may start to doubt the facts: has Russia really killed Ukrainian children or abducted them?

Therefore, even if you want to highlight the brutality and bloodthirsty character of Russians, do it only through indisputable, proven facts