FAKE: 12,000 Ukrainians became victims of government repression — “Reporters Without Borders”

A video claiming to have been published by the international non-governmental human rights organization “Reporters Without Borders” is being spread online. It alleges that in 2024, 12,000 Ukrainians were victims of government repression because they had Russian relatives’ phone numbers or conducted internet searches in Russian. Additionally, it claims that 56 criminal cases for suspected collaboration were opened in Sumy in October, with 12 individuals allegedly dying during interrogations.

However, this claim is false. “Reporters Without Borders” did not release such a video, and the data on criminal cases is inaccurate. There is no evidence of Sumy residents dying during interrogations. The video was fabricated using publicly accessible footage.

The website’s “Ukraine” section and the social media pages of “Reporters Without Borders” (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) do not feature any such video. The last report published by the organization about Ukraine, dated October 14, 2024, focused on Ukrainian media. In this report, the authors proposed creating the International Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukrainian Media (IFRUM) to ensure media independence and uphold the right to information. The report does not mention “12,000 repressed Ukrainians”.

Such an astonishing claim would have been covered by other reputable publications and human rights organizations. However, neither credible Ukrainian nor international media outlets reported on this. The video has predominantly been shared by Russian resources.

Ppublicly available footage was used in the video. For instance, the first clip in the fake video featuring RSF’s Head of Investigations Arnaud Froger was found on the organization’s YouTube channel, where it was posted on September 16, 2024. The speaker’s clothing, background, and camera angle match the original video, in which Froger discussed how Russia had used the “Reporters Without Borders” logo to create a fake video falsely accusing Ukrainian soldiers of supporting Nazi ideology. We had previously debunked this disinformation.

The man shown with a black eye in the video is a former head of the ATO Veterans Union in Vovchansk who switched allegiance to Russia and disclosed the names of local ATO veterans. In September 2022, the Defense Forces liberated the town, and the collaborator was detained.

Another man filmed during a Security Service of Ukraine arrest was one of a group detained by the SSU in November 2022 for joining the occupation “Penal Enforcement Administration of Kherson Oblast”.

Furthermore, there is no evidence that 12 individuals died during interrogations in Sumy. Neither local nor national media outlets reported this, nor have law enforcement agencies announced the opening of 56 cases for collaboration in October. Previously, we debunked a fake alleging that 27 people were killed during interrogations in Sumy on suspicion of ties to Russia.