Fake: Lviv Maternity Wards Ban Russian Crying
Fake Kremlin media report: In Lviv, birthing women are being required to scream only in Ukrainian. According to 'Moskovsky Komsomolets', 'Regnum' agency, and other Kremlin media, birthing women in Lviv have been banned from screaming in Russian due to pain.
Consensus
- The story about women in Lviv maternity wards being told not to cry in Russian during childbirth is a fabricated claim.
- The image used to support the story was generated using AI and contains a SynthID watermark.
- Ukrainian fact-checkers from VoxCheck identified the image as AI-generated.
- The story was widely circulated by Kremlin-affiliated media outlets.
- The image was presented as a leaflet or methodical guide distributed in Lviv maternity wards.
Points of divergence
- Elena Yampolskaya, advisor to the Russian president, called the alleged request 'monstrous' and linked it to Ukraine's alleged move toward a Nazi path. — tg_tass_agency
- Yampolskaya stated that such materials are evidence of Ukraine's language policy and connected the issue to the anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre, claiming her grandmother was killed there. — vedomosti
- Yampolskaya said that Russia considers the protection of the Russian language a condition for conflict resolution and that language policy change should be a result of the end of the special military operation. — vedomosti
- Yampolskaya referenced a speech by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov at the UN Security Council, where he claimed the special operation aims to protect Russian speakers in Crimea, Donbass, and Novorossia. — vedomosti
- The leaflets were distributed in maternity wards in western Ukraine and emphasize the importance of a language environment for newborns. — vm
- The instruction states that women should avoid using Russian words before and during childbirth, and that mothers should cry in the state language ('державной мове'). — vm
- The story was reported by Moscow22 Vesti, claiming that women in Lviv maternity wards were forced to cry in Ukrainian. — vesti
- Russian Foreign Ministry special envoy Rodion Miroshnik claimed that the Russian language is now in its worst times in Ukraine and is used only to distinguish 'us' from 'them'. — vesti
Coverage (5 sources)
- Fake Kremlin media: in Lviv, birthing women are required to scream only in Ukrainian — The Insider
- Yampolska called the call to Lviv birthing women not to shout in Russian monstrous. Russia president advisor noted that modern Ukraine is going down the Nazi path. — ТАСС (Telegram)
- Yampolska condemned calls for childbirth women in Lviv not to speak Russian — Ведомости
- Media: Women in Lviv maternity hospitals banned from screaming in pain in Russian — Вечерняя Москва
- In Lviv maternity hospitals, women are forced to scream in Ukrainian — Вести
Key entities
- Lvova
- Media
- Russia
- Yampil
- Ukraine
- Moscow
- MID
- TASS
- Rodyon Miroshnik
- Western Ukraine
- Moscow Komsomol
- Babyn Yar
- Regnum
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