Fake about bags with the remains of dead soldiers

russian trash sites and cheering patriotic social media pages are disseminating a false narrative claiming that over a dozen bags containing the remains of Ukrainian soldiers were “accidentally discovered in the city of Dnipro,” accompanied by photos of bodies encased in cellophane bags. 

In fact, it’s NOT about remains at all, but rather about the PERSONAL EFFECTS of the soldiers. 

But, don’t dismiss this as mere “translation difficulties.” This error was deliberate, and it becomes evident when you read the full text, which clarifies that what was found were the belongings of soldiers who perished in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO), scattered on the outskirts of Dnipro: “bloodstained uniforms, boots, crosses, and even a medal.”

And if that weren’t enough, we also discovered that these items were discovered way back in 2018. It was claimed that they belonged to Ukrainian soldiers who perished in the Ilovaisk hellhole. In essence, this fake news is built on distorted information with a long history.

 “The Black Tulip humanitarian mission stumbled upon these items at a fish farm; there were 38 bags with morgue tags in all. A farmer leasing the land approached some volunteers, revealing that in 2014, the police had requested his property for drying the evidence. However, no one returned for these belongings, which were eventually buried. But, the bags were occasionally raided by dogs, tearing them apart and scattering the content across the territory,” reported the Television News Service on May 16, 2018.

The National Police confirmed that in 2014, the evidence was indeed transferred to a farm for storage, as the police simply lacked suitable facilities for safekeeping.  

Furthermore, the photo circulating with this fake narrative wasn’t taken in Dnipro but rather in Bucha, near Kyiv, during the exhumation of bodies interred in a mass grave — Ukrainians who were tortured to death in 2022 by Russian occupation forces