Users of social networks (Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Twitter etc.) have been informing since November 30 about a 16-years-old pro-Russian girl who was reported to perish in Lysychansk.  She allegedly saved her brothers-in-arms by throwing herself under a tank with three F1 grenades.  This story was liked and reposted many times.

Antimaidan VK-webpage screenshot
Antimaidan VK-webpage screenshot

The source of this fake is an alleged story told by Yaroslav Voskoyenko from Lysychansk, born in 1998: “… I remember the withdrawal from Lysychansk.  Darkness, explosions around us, blood before my eyes.  were attacked by accurate fire.  Valeria Liakhova, covername Pretty Woman, 16-years-old, was living in Lysychansk, in the district of Proletarsk.  Her father perished on the front line, she died under a tank with three F1 grenades.  Pretty Woman threw herself with three grenades in front of a tank, she sacrificed herself in order to cover the flank.  Her life was taken from her by the war when she was only 16, she is a HERO posthumously”.

But, firstly, F1 grenade (limonka or lemon grenade) is a hand antipersonnel defensive grenade.  Even three F1 grenades cannot stop a tank.

Secondly, a girl on the photo is not Valeria Liakhova, but Polina Turchina from Krasnodar.  She is alive and has nothing to do with the militants of so-called Luhansk People Republic.  She has already informed in several publics that she is indignant at the fact that her photo was used in the news about the “perished heroine”.

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Let us recall that in June all main Russian mass media informed about “the hero of the Luhansk army” Oleksandr Skriabin, who was said to throw himself under a Ukrainian tank with a bunch of grenades.  As it turned out later, that man died as far back as in 2011.