Russian news sites and Russian social media accounts are disseminating fakes claiming that the bodies of more than 500 Ukrainian soldiers were found in a mine shaft at the Bogdanka coal mine in Poland. Bogdanka’s press office told StopFake such claims are completely fake, and there are no bodies anywhere on the coal mine’s territory. StopFake factcheckers have ascertained that these fake claims were originally published on an anonymous Telegram channel, which according to Ukraine’s Security Service, is used by Russian secret services to foment and incite anti-government sentiments in Ukraine.
Certain social media accounts as well as Russian news media are abuzz with disinformation, claiming that a “burial site” of some 500 Ukrainian soldiers was discovered at the Bogdanka coal mine, located approximately 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. These fakes further claim the bodies are not only those of Ukrainian servicemen but also foreign fighters who fought on the side of Ukraine.
“There are rumors among Poles that bodies of foreign mercenaries who died in the Special Military Operation zone were brought there. According to another version, these are the bodies of wounded Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen, whose bodies were harvested for organs, after being taken to Europe for “treatment”. The miners say that there may be several such graves, since mine tunnels are periodically filled up, ” writes one Facebook account.
Russian media have also eagerly disseminated this fake, linking their disinformation to Kremlin propagandist Ruslan Ostashko, one of the presenters of the pro-Kremlin television talk show Vremia Pokazhet on Russian first state television channel, who has more than 345,000 followers on Telegram. However, as StopFake journalists managed to establish, this fake claim was first published on an anonymous Telegram channel called Sheptun (Whisperer) with the hashtag #nampishut, which means “writing to us.” Ukraine’s Security Service has repeatedly warned that the Sheptun Telegram channel is used by Russian special services to incite anti-government sentiment in Ukraine.
The Sheptun Telegram channel does not indicate the source of this claim. The hashtag #nampyshut suggests this information came from one of the channel’s readers. StopFake factcheckers were unable to find any information about such a discovery in any open sources, including Polish media and social media networks.
Speaking to StopFake, Bogdanka spokesperson Jan Matysik said the claim being peddled in Russian media and on social media platforms about alleged bodies in Bogdanka mine shafts is a fake. He emphasized the absurdity of this claim, since “no military operations are conducted in the direct location of Bogdanka, as well as in the territory of the Republic of Poland.”
Fake stories such as this one are regularly disseminated by the Russian propaganda machine to give new life to a key Kremlin propaganda narrative – that “foreign mercenaries” are fighting en masse on the side of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian government is trying by all means possible to hide the heavy casualties on the Ukrainian side. StopFake has repeatedly debunked similar Russian fakes, such as “Fake: thousands of Polish mercenaries have died since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine”, “Fake: The number of foreigners in the Armed Forces of Ukraine “will soon exceed 50 percent”. In August 2022, Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff acting Deputy Chief Major General Volodymyr Talalay, said that no more than 100 foreign military personnel serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine under contract. Based on open sources, we also currently know about at last five deaths of Polish volunteers who fought for Ukraine. Both these numbers are considerably smaller than the hundreds allegedly found in the Bogdanka mine shaft burials.
As for the propagandist claim that the alleged discovered bodies belong to wounded Ukrainian military personnel who left for treatment in Europe only to have their bodies harvested for organs, this hypothesis is completely absurd. StopFake analyzed in detail the Russian propaganda narrative about illegal organ transplants in “Fake: Mykolayiv morgue releases bodies for organs – photo”.
There is no possible way that wounded soldiers would be transported across the border for treatment without proper documentation, including documents from the European Commission Emergency Coordination Center (Emergency Response Coordination Center) indicating the readiness of the particular EU member country to accept a patient for treatment free of charge. The Ukrainian government and other official bodies track the movements of servicemen who travel abroad for treatment.
