"Ridiculous Headline of the Day": Telegram channels pass off an old announcement as current

On March 12, 2025, Russian forces took control of the city of Sudzha in the Kursk region. They infiltrated the Ukrainian Armed Forces-controlled territory through an empty gas pipeline nearly 14 kilometers long. Acting Governor of the Kursk region Alexander Khinshtein stated that this maneuver helped break through Ukrainian forces' positions. Following this event, the Telegram channels Belarusian Enforcer and Our Land published a photo of a notice reassuring Lviv residents that Russians could not enter their homes through a gas pipeline.

"Ridiculous Headline of the Day: In Lviv, people were so struck by the story of Russians infiltrating enemy lines in Sudzha through a gas pipeline that they now genuinely fear a repeat of the incident at home. Lvivgaz's hotline was completely paralyzed by calls from concerned citizens," report the authors of the "Our Land" Telegram channel.

The WTF team could not find the original photo of the notice. However, we were able to prove that it was digitally altered.

First, the notice shown in the image above the Lvivgaz message mentions the "Your Energy Independence" promotion, which starts on Aug. 15. We verified that a promotion by that name indeed took place in 2020, starting on that date.

The notice on the side states that, as of March 16, the customer service center is closed and services are provided remotely. This information was originally published in March 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown in Lviv.

The phone numbers listed under the notice are indeed registered to Lvivgaz. This means the original photo was taken in Lviv, but five years ago.