The image circulating online was generated using artificial intelligence. No such repatriation of bodies took place on August 6, as the Ministry of Internal Affairs has confirmed.
An image purportedly showing an August 6 repatriation of the bodies of fallen soldiers — in which 1,210 bodies were said to have been returned to Ukraine — is spreading actively across both Russian- and Ukrainian-language social media. The post drew a sharp, if polarized, response: some users expressed condolences to the families of the fallen, while others complained that Ukraine was “prolonging” a war in which so many are dying.
Both the photograph and the story about a repatriation are fabrications. The image contains not only SynthID — an invisible watermark detectable with a dedicated tool, indicating the material was artificially generated using one of OpenAI’s products — but also fairly obvious visual artifacts. The names, call signs, and dates of birth and death of two of the “fallen” in the first row are entirely identical.
Moreover, no credible Ukrainian outlet reported any repatriation scheduled for August 6. The claim that 1,210 bodies of Ukrainian servicemen had been returned was also refuted by Artur Dobroserdov, Ukraine’s Commissioner for Persons Missing Under Special Circumstances. “No such repatriation measures were carried out. Information about the alleged identification of individual servicemen is likewise untrue. What is particularly cynical is that such fake reports are accompanied by surnames, photographs, and purported ‘lists,’ forcing families to experience hope and pain over and over again,” he said. According to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the most recent exchange took place on July 16, when the bodies of more than five hundred servicemen were returned to Ukraine. The headquarters stressed that it plans to carry out all necessary measures to identify the repatriated dead.
Clickbait posts of this kind exploit sensitive subjects and are designed to generate the widest possible reach for their authors at any cost. StopFake has previously debunked similar AI-generated content in its report Photo Fake: Ukrainian Soldiers Praying for Salvation.
