Fake newspaper cover on Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk spreads online
"The Kursk expedition was a disaster and a complete waste of life. Britain egged it on," says a March 15, 2025 post on X from Ian Miles Cheong, a far-right blogger who has previously spread other misinformation -- and whose posts have been repeatedly amplified by billionaire X owner Elon Musk.
The post claims to show the Hull Daily Mail, a regional newspaper serving the port city of Hull in northeastern England, saying on its front page: "70,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region died in vain. The UK poured hundreds of millions of pounds into Zelensky's crushing failure."
Image
Screenshot from X taken March 19, 2025
Images showing the purported edition of the tabloid, dated March 13, circulated across X and other platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
They spread as Zelensky said March 18 that Ukrainian troops would continue fighting in Russia's Kursk, despite Moscow's push to retake swathes of the area Kyiv captured in August 2024.
litary situation in the Kursk region is a key issue at a time of intensive international diplomacy, including in the United Kingdom, to try to put an end to the three year conflict.
But the supposed Hull Daily Mail headline blasting Zelensky over the Kursk incursion is a fabrication.
"That story re Ukraine was a fake," said Lija Kresowaty, a spokesperson for Reach PLC, the Hull Daily Mail's parent company, in a March 18 email.
Websites including PressReader, a digital newspaper distributor, show the outlet's true cover story March 13 related to a stabbing incident (archived here and here).
Image
Screenshot from Pressreader.com taken March 19, 2025
"Boy found guilty of attempting to murder girl with a sword," the front-page text said. "Halloween camping trip turned into a nightmare when young teenager was stabbed ten times."
Kresowaty told AFP the cover preserved by PressReader is "the correct front page from that day."
It was not clear where the 70,000 figure cited in the fake headline about Kursk came from, or whether it has merit. Neither side of the conflict has provided verifiable casualty counts, as both Moscow and Kyiv do not typically disclose their military losses, and AFP does not cite each camp's claims on their adversary's fatalities.
Zelensky told the US broadcaster NBC in February that 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died in the war Independent Ukrainian war correspondent Yuri Butusov, meanwhile, said in December 2024 that his army sources estimated some 70,000 dead and 35,000 missing.
AFP has debunked other misinformation about Russia's invasion here.
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