TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov's Telegram channel published a photograph allegedly taken in Warsaw of a graffiti caricature of Vladimir Zelensky: a "black hole" is depicted on the sidewalk, from which Zelensky's face peeps out, devouring sacks of dollars. The photo is captioned "stop eating our money, thank you."
As it turned out, the photo is fake, there has never been such graffiti in Warsaw. Mateusz Witczyński, a spokesman for the Warsaw district of Wola, told Ukrinform that he recognized the place depicted in the photo – the intersection of John Paul II Alley and Złota Street – and that he himself lives in the area and has never seen such graffiti. According to him, the photo is a low-quality fake, based on an old photograph taken before the repair of the intersection.
The source of the fake photo turned out to be the Polish Telegram channel “11 LIPCA” (“July 11”), created in July 2022 and having only 158 subscribers. July 11 in Poland is the day of remembrance for the victims of the Volyn massacre, the tragic events of 1943-1944, when tens of thousands of Poles died at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists. Obviously, the creators of the channel are still settling scores with the Ukrainians.
The fake picture of the Polish channel was replicated on Telegram by the Tsargrad TV channel, followed by numerous propaganda channels and “patriotic” social media users.