On September 3, 2024, Russian Telegram channels reported on a “successful strike” with a missile on a training center in Poltava and the death of Swedish instructors who allegedly had classes there. Foreign volunteer, Britta Ellwanger, who works for the benefit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is said to be the source of information. However, she denied this information.
But the authors of the Telegram channel 'Our Land' found other evidence of the Swedes' presence and, on the evening of September 3, published a screenshot of a Facebook post allegedly written by a healthcare worker from Poltava, Viktoria Omelyanenko:
Here the authors of the Telegram channel “Zemlya Nasha” provided other evidence of the Swedes’ presence. On the evening of September 3, they published a fake screenshot from Facebook, claiming that it was a post by a healthcare worker from Poltava, Victoria Omelyanenko. Here is what the post said:
“A whole bunch of schoolchildren were brought to our hospital for donation. Of course, by force, I'm not sure their parents even knew about it. Not one of them is 18 years old, of course. I respect my Swedish colleagues who, together with our defenders, are protecting Ukrainian land. But there are rules, after all! Children under 18 years are not allowed to donate blood! Everyone knows that! Okay, you don't care about the children, but think about the doctors!”
Such a profile does exist on Facebook. However, journalists from WTF did not find a similar post on it.
We turned to Victoria to check the information in Telegram channels regarding her person. Here is what she said in response:
“I have nothing to do with this, I do not live in Poltava, and I was not there that day either. That day I distributed Red Cross aid stuff to internally displaced persons at my place of residence.”