Detox. No, there is no fur offered for Russian war widows.

Where does the intox come from?

February 6 published on a VKontact page a video of a dozen women, presented as Russian war widows, receiving fur coats. One of them thanks: “We received this unexpected help today, in a very unexpected way, we are grateful to you. Here are gathered the families of the soldiers killed. It’s true, a big thank you from the bottom of my heart to you”. At the end of the video, the man behind the camera concludes: “It is in moments like this that we realize that we are one family. »

Why is this wrong?

Désintox geolocated the scene thanks to the decor, in particular a panel offering English lessons, in the background. The sequence takes place in occupied Donbass, in the town of Makiivka, east of Donetsk. But several elements indicate a staging, in particular the diction of the women, which suggests that the scene has nothing spontaneous about it. Above all, Déintox has identified and contacted one of these women, who claims that the coats were taken back after the shooting. Information corroborated by the testimony of another participant, collected by Russian activists and relayed by the independent media Meduza. The witness contacted by Désintox also affirms that more than half of the women present, including herself, would not be widows: “There are five or six women who are widows. All the others are extras. I’m really ashamed to have taken part in this.” According to her, the staging is the work of the head of a pro-Russian local administration, and one of his friends, who recruited some of the women.