Attack in Mariupol: the photo of a pregnant woman at the heart of disinformation


A pregnant woman, injured in the attack on the Mariupol children’s hospital, has been at the heart of an image war since Thursday, carried by Russia’s accusations against her.

On Wednesday, the Mariupol pediatric hospital was targeted by a Russian strike. At least three people, including a young girl, lost their lives in this attack described as a “war crime” by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a “barbaric act” by Joe Biden. While several journalists were present on site to document this tragedy, Russia claims that everything is “false information”. According to her, the establishment did not welcome mothers or children, but served as a base for the neo-Nazi Azov battalion, which the Russians say they are fighting. On Twitter, the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom, but also that in France, both said the same thing: “At the Mariupol maternity hospital, there were no children or mothers, chased out by neo-Nazi fighters from the “Azov” regiment who use hospitals as human shields. The “photos of the victims” are fake, this being proven by many sources”. In response to those who asked to know these famous sources, the embassy in France said: “This is just a scam. Flagrant evidence soon”.

At the heart of this supposed fake news is the image of a pregnant woman, her face injured. The mother-to-be, in pajamas, surrounded by a blanket and with a haggard face, would be, according to the Russian embassy in England, an influencer who “played the role of a pregnant woman” in front of an independent photographer who, according to Russia, would broadcast Ukrainian propaganda. In response to these claims, Twitter deleted the tweets from the Embassy in the UK (the one from the Russian Embassy in France is still visible). “Obviously this is misinformation. You have seen the photos of the people injured in this attack”, commented a spokesman for Boris Johnson Thursday, quoted by the “Guardian”. A Twitter spokesperson said the platform took the action “because the tweets are in violation of Twitter’s rules, specifically our policies on hateful conduct and abusive behavior related to denial of violent events.” .

The influencer harassed online

The young woman at the heart of the debates is indeed the influencer identified by Russia, Marianna Podgurskaya, but the latter is actually pregnant and was born in Mariupol. On her Instagram account, she announced her pregnancy on January 25, before the start of the Russian invasion in the country. “Our little happiness is on its way and I have decided to share this good news with you. You can’t even imagine how hard it was to shut up and pretend everything was business as usual (especially with my pockets), I really wanted to share the joy with the whole world, but I didn’t want to rush,” she wrote, accompanying this ad with a photo of her baby bump. CNN correspondent Jomana Karadsheh asked Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova about the footage on Thursday. She called the photos and videos of the attack on the maternity ward “false provocations” and accused the Western media of being blind to the eight-year-old war in Donbass.

If the tweets from the Russian Embassy have been deleted, the face of Marianna Podgurskaya is now shared on the Internet by many conspiracy theorists. The “Daily Beast” notably evokes theories read on the 4Chan site, according to which even if she is “really pregnant”, “she could not be in this maternity”. Her last Instagram post, dating back to February 28, is also filled with comments in Russian, attacking her in recent hours. “How much do you charge for a photo shoot on the ruins of a maternity ward?”, “Well, what to do. The president is an actor and everyone around is playing…”, “Do you think that after all the shit you’re involved in, your life will be okay? Do you think about the child, how many negative thoughts are directed at you now, no money will help you in the future with what will happen to you”, “How much were you paid for the wonderful shooting in the maternity ward?” , can we read in particular.

Ukrainian human rights activist Oleksandra Matviichuk tweeted Thursday about online harassment targeting the young woman and called on netizens to offer her “words of support”. “Russians are bullying Marianna on Instagram. She is one of the women in the Mariupol maternity ward, pounded by the Russians. His face appeared today in all the media of the world. If you can write words of support, it will be the right decision. We will pass your comments on to him,” she wrote.

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