Video shows Ukrainian girl injured by bicycle, not Russian missile

Video shows Ukrainian girl injured by bicycle, not Russian missile

(Reuters) - Social media users are sharing a video of a Ukrainian girl getting her foot bandaged and claiming she was hit by a Russian missile. However, the girl’s mother told Reuters the injury was due to a bicycle accident.   

 The text in one post reads: “This little girl was injured by missiles in #Mykolayiv. And she is singing the National Anthem at the hospital. Unconquered #Ukrainian.”

Comments on the posts include: “Pres. Zelensky can you please give this little girl a medal, she deserve it,” “God save the children!” and “Wtf is wrong with Russia? Look at this, look at what you’re destroying, makes me so angry.”

Reuters traced the video back to the social media accounts of the girl’s mother, Romana Komarevich. Her Instagram account, which is now private (here), features years-old photos of her daughter, including a post from 2018, marking her birth.

Speaking to Reuters via direct message, Komarevich said her four-year-old daughter Elizaveta was injured on a bicycle and that claims about her being wounded in a bombing were false.

She added that her family is based in Ukraine’s Ternopil Oblast, an 800 km (500 miles) drive away from Mykolaiv. Past posts on Komarevich’s Instagram account corroborate her location.

Komarevich also addressed the false claims on her TikTok account (here), writing that her daughter had “endured the trauma procedure” after a bicycle injury.

“We thank the local journalists who covered the situation. Once again for everyone: we are not from Mykolaiv, thank God we didn’t come under attack,” she added in a comment section.

VERDICT False. The video shows a girl receiving treatment following a bike injury.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work �