Were 85 children from a Ukrainian orphanage sold abroad? No, that's not true: The claim was made without proof by a woman who has previously spread misinformation about Ukraine on Russian channels.
Joanna Pachwicewicz, a Polish human right activist, who spoke to Izvestia newspaper in Russian, claimed she came into possession of a series of documents about children in an orphanage located not far from Mariupol being all sold to Spain.
Pachwicewicz however did not reveal the content of the alleged documents or publish them as evidence.
The story appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by vitaliy_deutschland on May 3. A caption reads:
About selling of Ukrainian children. Joanna Pachwicewicz, Polish activist
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri May 19 08:39:36 2023 UTC)
Joanna Pachwicewicz has previously appeared on the Sputnik news agency, which was banned for spreading disinformation about Ukraine, and she has appeared on other Russian TV programs, including an appearance on Sputnik when she claimed Ukrainian children had been "taken away to give to homosexuals in England."
In April, 49 UN and EU countries condemned the spread of misinformation concerning the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children, amid reports that Russian authorities have unlawfully removed nearly twenty thousand children from Ukraine since it invaded the country in February 2022, according to the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.
