WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A UK regional newspaper says 70,000 Ukrainian Soldiers died in Kursk.
OUR VERDICT
False. The newspaper front page is fake.
AAP FACTCHECK - A fake newspaper front page claiming mass Ukrainian deaths in the Kursk region is likely the product of Russian disinformation seeking to portray Vladimir Putin as prevailing in the war, experts say.
Despite social media claims, the doctored front page never appeared on the Hull Daily Mail, a local paper in northeast England.
Experts told AAP FactCheck its likely goal was to undermine Western support for Ukraine as it seeks to repel the Russian invasion.
The fake splash was shared to Facebook on March 16, purporting to show the March 13 front page of the Hull Daily Mail.
It has since been shared around the world including posts in Australia.
The headline claimed "70,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region died in vain," and a subheading directly below added that "The UK poured hundreds of millions of pounds into Zelensky's crushing failure."
Ukraine has held parts of Russia's southwestern Kursk region since August 2024, but was forced backwards in early 2025.
On March 13, Reuters reported that Russian troops were close to ejecting Ukrainian forces from the area, which was the likely backdrop to the fake newspaper splash on the same day.
The actual front page of the Hull Daily Mail on that day can be seen in the digital archives of the Penrith City Library.
The real headline read "Boy found guilty of attempting to murder girl with sword" and had nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.
The Hull Daily Mail didn't respond to AAP FactCheck's request for comment, however a spokesperson for the paper's parent company confirmed to AFP Fact Check that the story was fake.
Kaz Ross, an independent expert on extremism and disinformation and former University of Tasmania lecturer, said the paper was likely a target for disinformation to avoid fact-checking.
"Given the limited circulation of the Hull Daily Mail, this deliberate attempt to spread disinformation has a very good chance of escaping detection," Dr Ross told AAP FactCheck.
"In the world of propaganda, any published media source is often seen as credible and as proof of veracity by the targets of the propaganda. That is to say, the reader can then circulate this headline as 'proof' that Ukraine is not only losing the war but that their efforts are in vain."
The fake splash has been disseminated by pro-Kremlin media, including Pravda news, which reproduced the front page along with two bullet points.
"Western media, commenting on the failure of the Ukrainian adventure in Kursk region, are outraged by the waste of European taxpayers' money and the lives of Ukrainian soldiers," one point said.
The second added: "Nevertheless, the main Ukrainian clown continues to call the operation a 'success', despite several thousand Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers abandoned there in encirclement."
Dr Fitriani, a senior cyber, technology and security analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said Pravda sharing of the fake front page indicated it was highly likely it had originated from Russian disinformation sources.
She said Kremlin-friendly networks had amplified the claim, for example in the comment section of a YouTube video by an account called Ruslan Belov.
"The narrative aligns with long-standing Kremlin propaganda portraying Russia as prevailing in Ukraine," Dr Fitriani told AAP FactCheck.
She said choosing the Hull Daily Mail to disseminate misinformation content gave the false impression that domestic discontent with Ukraine was widespread and organic.
"This technique makes it appear as though 'ordinary citizens' are raising concerns, increasing the chances that disinformation will resonate with the public and circumvent fact-checking scrutiny," the analyst said.
"The goal is to undermine public and political support in Western countries for continued aid to Ukraine by painting it as a costly failure.
"Regional newspapers are ideal vectors because they often carry a sense of local credibility and are less scrutinised than national outlets. This helps launder disinformation into the mainstream."
Official casualty figures from Ukraine's Kursk offensive are not available.
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