Kyiv police said that the video of soldiers allegedly begging near a shopping center in the capital is a fake, and the men in it are not military, UNN reports.
"While monitoring social media, law enforcement officers found a video of two men - one with signs of disability and the other wearing a military uniform without insignia - near a shopping center in Darnytsia district asking citizens for money, posing as former members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The men complained about the lack of payments, which forced them to beg," the Kyiv police said.
The post received about two hundred thousand views and was actively shared by users on other Internet platforms, which in turn created a distorted picture of abandonment of Ukrainian defenders and lack of care from the state.
"The pseudo-military were a 39-year-old resident of Kyiv and a 34-year-old native of Kherson. Both had no relation to the country's defense forces and had previously been prosecuted.
The police conducted an explanatory conversation with the men about the inadmissibility of disseminating false information and provided them with contacts of services that provide social assistance," law enforcement officers said.
The police called on bloggers and media people to verify information before publishing it to the public, and on citizens to be critical of provocative news on the Internet.