Did the Ukrainian Parliament submit a bill banning filming in cemeteries? No, that's not true: The screenshot distributed under the masthead of the National News Agency of Ukraine (Ukrinform) is fabricated. Lead Stories found no such information on Ukrinform's official website (archived here), and no such bill has been registered on the Ukrainian Parliament's website.
This claim has been published by different TikTok accounts and Russian online media. On April 11, 2023, it appeared in the video (archived here) posted on the TikTok account @vklnov, and it was also shared by the account @ym.yazy (archived here). The claim opened:
The Verkhovna Rada has registered a bill banning photo and video filming of cemeteries in Ukraine. This is said on the parliament's website, Ukrinform reports. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine submitted a bill banning filming in cemeteries. According to Ukrinform, there are already over 150,000 new (Fc note: burial) places. This is so that there would be no losses.
In correspondence with Lead Stories Ukrinform Director General Oleksandr Kharchenko wrote:
At your request, we inform you that the fake news was refuted by the Ukrinform agency on April 14, 2023 at 19:21.
Below is how the post appeared on TikTok by the time of this writing:
(Source: TikTok.com screenshot taken Thu Apr 14 10:20:23 2023 UTC)
On April 12, 2023, Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security also denied the claim.
