DISINFO: Students in Ukraine forced to reject their Russia-based relatives
SUMMARY
Ukrainian universities force students to write a rejection letter and cut off contacts with their Russia-based relatives. “For connections with Russia, my niece can be expelled from the institute. She sends me WhatsApp messages from someone else’s phone. She is afraid to write me from her own device. Everyone there is scared,” says Ekaterina Jankovic, a Ukrainian living now in Russia. Jankovic is sending food to her niece in Odesa.
RESPONSE
Journalists from StopFake.org found Ekaterina Jankovic's niece, Anastatia Kovalyonok and interviewed her. Kovalyonok said that "The video is utterly absurd. It is not true. Everything that was said is completely detached from reality". The university did not "ask me if I had any relatives in Russia. There was nothing like that". She emphasized that no one has sent her food: "I haven't seen her (my aunt) over the past four years".