The coverage of the war in Ukraine is full of fake news. Kosovar media continue to publish unverified news, accompanied by fake photos and videos. Due to the increased interest of citizens in consuming news related to the war in Ukraine, it is being spread rapidly through social networks and online media, continuing to misinform the public.
A few hours after Russia's first attacks in Ukraine, the Kosovar media spread a lot of disinformation, exploiting the public's interest for profit.
In certain cases, citizen panic has spread with the publication of tendentious news about the statements of the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. There is a harsh discourse with warnings of the Third World War.
In one of the titles of an online portal "https://instant.revista-ora.com/", it is said that "The Third World War will start", while the content talks about a statement by the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, where he declares that sanctions against Russia "could cause a Third World War". The portal's reporting went beyond what was said in the statement, coming to the false conclusion that "War will start".
There were also reports through photographs. A number of photographs of children have surfaced claiming they were taken during the conflict in Ukraine. Media such as https://insajderi.com/ and https://njekomb.org/have published a photo on their Facebook account showing two small children. In the news of these mediums it is claimed that the children in the photo are brother and sister, and that they are greeting the Ukrainian soldiers who are going to fight the Russian army.
In fact, this photo has nothing to do with the Russia-Ukraine war, as it was taken in 2016 by photographer Dmitry Muravsky, as part of the album "“Children of War"".
Below you can see the photo shared on March 22, 2016 on Dmitry Muravsky's Facebook social network;
Another photo that has been circulating on social media shows a small child in a war zone with the caption that Ukrainian children will not go to school today, implying that the photo is actual and taken in Ukraine.
But the actual photo is black and white and dates back to World War II in 1945, by Toni Frissell.
Moreover, the media have continued to publish news without verifying it beforehand. Some of them have published a news saying that "Albin Kurti will send the Kosovo Army to Ukraine to fight against Russia". This published statement stating that Albin Kurti expressed his willingness to send KSF soldiers to Ukraine, if NATO requests this, after the Ukraine-Russia conflict, is old and distorted. In fact, Kurti said that whatever NATO deems necessary, they will respond to their request. "First of all, I hope that there will be no new conflicts. I am also following closely until the late hours what is happening on the border between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. And there is an alert from NATO, especially the US, but also from the European Union about this. Whatever NATO deems necessary, we are of course ready", he said, according to the Indeksonline report.
This statement was published on December 9, 2021 and republished on March 3, 2022, being distributed as current news.
Another news spread in the media and social networks is the one with the main title: "The Serbian general wants to buy missiles that reach every corner of Kosovo".
This news was published on January 13, 2018. The same news has been republished and shared on social networking sites, such as Gazeta Aktive, claiming that it is current news.
There have also been cases where the names of local portals have been misused to spread fake news. Such was the news with the logo of Telegrafi.com where it is written that "The president of Ukraine is killed". Such news has not been published by this portal, even though it has circulated on social networks as a sponsored article.
*This article is published as part of the Western Balkans Regional Initiative against disinformation. “Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Hub: exposing malign influences through watchdog journalism.”
