On Aug. 16 prominent Russian propagandist Andrej Lysenko claimed that Ukraine’s Armed Forces had carried out an artillery strike on the Galaktika shopping mall in Russian-occupied Donetsk.
Lysenko is wanted by Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs for spreading malicious propaganda and disinformation on behalf of the Russian government.
In the description of two video clips, he posted at a 20-minute interval in the messenger app Telegram just after midday Kyiv time on Aug. 16, Lysenko painted horrifying events involving mass human casualties due to the alleged Ukrainian strike. He then addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin asking to “take” Ukraine in its entirety and to “cleanse” every Ukrainian.
“The Galaktika (shopping mall) is on fire. A huge number of people were burned alive. Children. Women are screaming, hysterical, because their children are there. We saved as many people as we could and pulled them out. ...Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) …Ukraine needs to be taken over and everyone needs to be cleansed.”
This is false.
The Kremlin-appointed governor of Russian-controlled Donetsk in Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, said 11 people suffered moderate or minor injuries during the Galaktika mall fire. No footage emerged at the time of the fire or in the aftermath showing the rescue efforts or wounded and burned children and women or anyone with visible wounds related to the fire at the Galaktika mall.
Lysenko himself is the focus of the footage he shared online. As his cinematographer follows Lysenko around a burning building, the video shows an empty parking lot with a single car parked in front of the mall. Contrary to his claim about having to pull people from the fire and save them, Lysenko’s footage shows him driving away from the shopping mall to avoid the smoke. While he encounters a few visibly distressed people, while running around the building, none of them shows signs of burns or other trauma.
Numerous Russian news media reported mass victims of the Ukrainian strike in the Donetsk Galaktika mall — all citing Lysenko. None, including Russia’s most viewed state-owned TV channel Rossia 1, provided any original reporting or exclusive footage taken at the place of the alleged disaster.
The 60 Minutes program on Rossia 1, repeated Lysenko’s fake uncritically. "Ukraine is committing insane atrocities at the behest of the West," its host Olga Skabeyeva commented on Lysenko's footage.
Pro-Kremlin users and channels on social media platforms like YouTube, VKontakte, and Telegram boosted Lysenko's video reaching millions of viewers.
Two hours after the initial footage, Lysenko posted another video on his Telegram channel. He now stated that the shopping center fire “killed dozens.” Still, he did not provide any evidence to back up that claim either.