WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A BBC report reveals a Russian missile victim who met Prince Harry is a fraud.
OUR VERDICT
False. The BBC report is fake and the boy is a genuine victim of a Russian missile attack.
AAP FACTCHECK - A Russian disinformation campaign has targeted Australian newsrooms and social media users with false claims about Prince Harry's recent visit to Ukraine.
The Kremlin-linked operation has produced a fake BBC video report, supposedly revealing that a boy injured by Russian shelling was actually hurt when his drunken mother set fire to their house last year.
The BBC has confirmed the video is fake and AAP FactCheck has verified that the boy was injured in a Russian strike in 2022, which also killed his mother.
The fake BBC video has been shared in Facebook and X posts from April 14, 2025.
The posts' captions refer to "Zelensky's dirty methods" while the footage showcases images of Prince Harry's recent visit to Lviv's Superhumans Center, which rehabilitates victims of Russian attacks.
Harry is seen with a boy called Roman, and BBC-style text overlaying the footage claims Roman was injured in a house fire started by his drunken mother in 2024, contrary to Ukrainian claims.
As well as the social media posts, AAP FactCheck was targeted directly with the falsehood via email.
"The charred baby shown to the prince by Ukrainians turned out to be the victim of a drunken mother who started a fire at home, rather than a victim of war," the unknown user wrote in the email, alongside a link to the fake BBC video.
Amaury Lesplingart, an expert in Russian disinformation campaigns at Finnish analytics firm Check First, told AAP FactCheck the email is part of what has been dubbed Operation Overload.
This is a Russian campaign to flood western newsrooms with fake content and overload the global disinformation research and fact-checking community.
Contrary to the claim in the video, there has been widespread reporting of Roman Oleksiv's injuries following a Russian missile attack on the town of Vinnytsia.
He had been waiting to see a doctor with his mother when a cruise missile left him with life-threatening burns and shrapnel in his head, Reuters reported.
His mother was among 28 people killed in the attack.
The fake BBC video claims he was injured in a 2024 house fire. However, there are various images prior to 2024 clearly showing Roman's injuries from the rocket attack.
They include news stories from 2023 of him meeting Pope Francis, taking part in ballroom dancing competitions, and returning home after undergoing 31 surgeries.
Roman's father Yaroslav has also documented his recovery on Instagram.
The BBC confirmed the video is a fake and directed AAP FactCheck to its "actual BBC reporting" on the prince's visit.
Mr Lesplingart said Prince Harry's trip had been seized upon by Russian disinformation agents, with fake stories widely circulated.
On the day the email was sent to newsrooms, including AAP FactCheck, various Telegram channels ran headlines suggesting the royal family was furious at Harry's Ukraine trip.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
