German agency uses photos of injured Ukrainians to advertise Russian media. Kyiv demands an apology

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns the demonstration of images of Ukrainians who suffered as a result of Russian terror in the advertising of the Russian media, reports UNN.

"A special 'award' for marketing cynicism and hypocrisy should be given to the Lure agency from Berlin. They showed Ukrainians who lost their families and homes in a commercial for the Russian media outlet Meduza. Using our tragedy to evoke sympathy for the Russians is a complete disgrace," the statement reads.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhiy Tykhyi called for "the immediate removal of all advertising content that exploits Ukrainian suffering caused by Russian terror from all media platforms where it appeared.

"We are also convinced that the Ukrainians whose grief has been cynically exploited deserve an apology," the statement said.

Context

As reported by Hromadske Radio, the Russian website Medusa, which considers itself an opposition website and whose journalists work in Latvia, has launched an advertising campaign that uses footage of the war in Ukraine.

The campaign for the Russian website was created for free by the German creative agency Lure. Its appearance was noticed by Victoria Feshak, a member of the Ukrainian NGO Viche Berlin.

Amid a large number of negative comments, the agency that developed the ad either removed the post or hid it.

According to Victoria Feshak, she saw the Medusa ad in a movie theater in Berlin. Among the images used in the advertising campaign are videos and photos of explosions as a result of Russian attacks in Ukraine. The cover of the ad features a photo of Lviv resident Yaroslav Bazylevych at the funeral of his wife and three daughters, who were killed by Russian shelling of Lviv on September 4, 2024. The campaign also features an image of a woman crying outside her house in Bucha, Kyiv region, which was also destroyed by Russians.

The agency said that Medusa journalists "face constant threats from the Kremlin, including kidnapping and poisoning," and that is why they created the ad "to support the work of brave journalists who risk their lives every day to bring us the truth." However, the agency later removed or hid the post.

The organization Viche Berlin wrote that it was "shocked that a German creative agency is downplaying Russia's responsibility for this war and using the real suffering of Ukrainians to portray Russians as victims." They expressed hope that this campaign would be removed from European cities.

In the comments under the creative agency's video, Ukrainians also expressed outrage that videos depicting the suffering of Ukrainians were used to advertise "Russian liberals.