AAP FACTCHECK – Soft drinks company Coca-Cola has not provided Ukraine with “mobile morgues” to store the bodies of soldiers killed in the conflict with Russia, despite claims on social media.
A photo of mobile boiler units donated to Ukraine by the American multinational has been doctored by Russian websites.
The claim is in a Facebook post featuring an image of a row of white storage containers bearing the Coca-Cola logos and the words ‘MOBILE MORGUE’ on their doors.
“Speaking of Coca-Cola – mobile morgues have been spotted in Sumy Oblast of Ukraine that the Ukrainian side received them from Coca-Cola. They were most likely brought in to help zelensky’s Nazi regime cope with the flow of liquidated Ukrainian Armed Forces militants,” the caption said.
Another Facebook post featured the image alongside an image of a Coca-Cola truck.
“Coca-Cola has supplied the bloody Kiev regime with a batch of mobile morgues,” the caption said.
Another Facebook post shared the same image, claiming it showed mobile morgues “supplied by Coca-Cola” in Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast.
The image was also cropped and shared in a Facebook post that said: “Coca-Cola Has Delivered Mobile Morgues To Ukraine To Store The Bodies Of Ukraine Fighters.”
However, the image does not show morgues; it shows mobile boiler houses donated by Coca-Cola to the Ukrainian Red Cross.
The company and the charity issued a joint statement about providing 60 units to Ukraine in 2024 and 45 units in 2023.
A Coca-Cola spokesperson also confirmed to AAP FactCheck it helped donate the boiler units.
Coca-Cola HBC, the bottling partner for Coca-Cola in Ukraine, said in a press release it had donated 5 million euros in funding to the project.
“This year, Coca-Cola HBC Ukraine donates additional 60 boilers to provide heating to schools, kindergartens, hospitals and residential buildings,” Coca-Cola HBC public affairs and communications director Andriy Bublyk said.
The original unaltered image on the Red Cross Ukraine website shows the mobile units with the Ukrainian Cyrillic text:
That means “mobile boiler plant”, according to Google Translate.
Underneath, further Ukrainian Cyrillic text translated reads: “Made with the support of the Ukrainian Red Cross and Coca-Cola.”
In the Facebook posts, the Ukrainian text has been deleted and replaced with the English words “MOBILE MORGUE”.
The first instance of the altered image appears to be in a November 17 article published by the website Penoptep (Reporter) that was quickly shared across social media.
The article claimed: “The fact is that the morgues located nearby are already overcrowded.”
NewsGuard, the media credibility and transparency rating tool, describes Penoptep as an “anti-Western” Russian website that has published false or egregiously misleading information about the Russia-Ukraine war, “often mirroring Kremlin propaganda”.
News outlet RBC-Ukraine debunked the claim and quoted the Ukraine government’s Center for Countering Disinformation, which said: “this is yet another fake from Russian propaganda.”
The altered image has also been debunked by Spain’s EFE Verifica.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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