The explosion along the Kerch strait connecting Russia’s mainland to the illegally annexed peninsula is another dampener upon Putin’s efforts to assert control in Ukraine, even though Ukrainian authorities have not claimed responsibility for the incident.
As speculation swirls around the event, one rumor appeared online suggesting that a potential lead had been found.
The Claim
Posts on Twitter and Telegram, published on October 8, 2022, suggested that a Ukrainian ID was found at the site of the Kerch bridge attack.
The Facts
The facts of the Kerch bridge strike are still being brought together.
Russia’s reaction targeted multiple Ukrainian cities, killing 11 people and injuring 82 in missile, air, and artillery strikes, reflecting its conviction that Kyiv was responsible for the bridge blast.
Indeed, Ukraine had for months prior to the explosion shared its intentions to destroy the bridge, though military experts were skeptical at the time whether it has any real capabilities to strike it.
Kyiv, meanwhile, claimed today that the mass shelling of Ukrainian cities was planned in advance and Crimea was simply an excuse (with presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak even suggesting that Russia itself was behind the blast, perhaps as a result of internal conflict between various state security agencies).
Neither side’s version of events has been confirmed or evidenced as of yet, and investigations are ongoing, as speculation about who is to blame spreads.
One example of this is the recent claim that an ID of a Ukrainian citizen was found at the site of the blast, something of a recurring motif in Russia’s “explanations” of such incidents that even became an internet meme.
The ID is a fabrication and has been shared online before to spread misinformation about the conflict in Ukraine. It goes back to at least February 2022, when it was linked to a “fallen Azov leader,” referring to the Ukrainian Azov battalion.
The photo has been attributed to Sam Hyde, a right-leaning comic, who has been a regular target of bogus social media claims over the past six years.
Apart from the fact that the man in the ID is topless, there are other clues as to its inauthenticity. The document issue number are all zeroes and the name on the passport is “Semen Hydenko”, in what appears to be a lewd reference to Hyde (and an inaccurate transliteration of the original Cyrillic surname).
It also appears to use most of the same record numbers, dates and signature as the photo attached to the Wikipedia entry for “Ukrainian identity card”.
A March 2022 Snopes investigation into misappropriated media traced the ID photo of Hyde to entries on 4Chan from February 22, 2022, falsely describing him as the “butcher of Luhansk.”
Newsweek found one tweet from February 21, 2022, with the same photo and the message: “The alleged ID of the Ukrainian saboteur who exploded when trying to plant an IED in DPR today. #UkraineConflict #UkraineRussiaCrisis”
The absence of further information following the Crimean bridge explosion has created a vacuum for misinformation to fill.
Newsweek discovered that several videos shared on social media of what purported to show the bridge being hit by missiles were seemingly created by an amateur YouTube video creator hours after the incident took place.
Newsweek contacted the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries for comment.
The Ruling
False.
The ID is not authentic and has been used repeatedly throughout the conflict in Ukraine to spread misinformation. The man in the photo is thought to be Sam Hyde, a right-leaning comic whose image has been misappropriated on a number of occasions across a number of hoax stories and claims.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
