Has anyone else met russians pretending to be Ukrainians and acting aggressively / belligerently, in order to make people angry at Ukrainians?

https://i.redd.it/kg6d2r38ft2f1.jpeg

by shadowrun456

42 comments

  1. I’ve recently had an interesting situation. I live in Lithuania. We were siting with friends at a bar table outside, when a random guy approached us and asked us to light his cigarette. He immediately started acting aggressively for no reason whatsoever, insulting us, etc. We asked him to leave, but he forcefully sat at our table, and unprompted said that he is “Ukrainian” and “deserted the army to come to Lithuania”. This was bizarre for several reasons: 1) who just says “I am from [country]” unprompted? I’ve never had this happen in my life before; 2) why would a person who deserted the army (which is a crime) just willingly admit to it to random strangers he just met and who he is actively antagonizing? But the final confirmation came when I asked him why he’s speaking russian and not Ukrainian, if he’s Ukrainian as he claims. He replied that “we wouldn’t understand” him if he spoke Ukrainian (which sounds logical on the surface), but I’ve called his bluff and said “I do speak Ukrainian, let’s speak Ukrainian” (I actually don’t, but that’s besides the point), and he immediately changed the subject and switched his attention do a different person at our table. I’ve asked him two more times to speak Ukrainian, and he just ignored me. After a while, we simply left.

    I wonder if anyone else has experienced similar situations.

  2. Sounds pretty desperate as a covert operation. Unless he just kills time in your country, waiting for some more damaging orders (remember the little green people of Crimea?)

  3. It’s one of tactics of online russian propaganda war but it’s quite weird seeing something like this irl. But we’re talking about russia, nothing can surprise me anymore. They are hell bent on spreading chaos, unrest and hate so europe would have to fight itself.

  4. Everyday brother, when you live near kaliningrad oblast there are many russians working in poland from Monday-Friday and on weekends they go back to Kaliningrad and they either pretend to be Belarusian and act normally or Ukrainians and then they tend to be more rude aggressive and on purpose makeing bad impressions, unfortunately for them I know Russian well and A little bit of Ukrainian and I can tell the difference even between Belarusian/Ukrainian Russian and Russian Russian

  7. I didn’t meet russians pretending to be Ukrainians yet.
    But most of the Russians, and also most of the Ukrainians in my neighbourhood are loud, crazy, and annoying (there are just a few exceptions in the neighbourhood .:( )

  9. Oh plenty on social media! It’s been on since the start of war at least.

  11. Met? No! Do I believe they are out there? Sure, they’ve done more despicable things than this in Ukraine already.

  12. I mean theyve learned how to do this with lgbt people. Writing fake stories about trans people to make people think all trans people are like that etc

  13. Had almost the same happen to me. Sat outside a restaurant with friends and a guy just joins the table, asking for a lighter, tells he’s Ukranian, then when asked about it starts talking about how he’s here hiding from conscription, how Russia is not at fault for starting this war and how evil the Ukranian government is. He was unpleasant and wouldn’t leave our table, so we left shortly after. I was baffled to hear this from a so called “Ukranian”.

    Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is some low-level operation to try and influence public opinion about Ukranians in key regions. Task your lowest level operatives to talk shit and give them beer money. They can even do this outside of work hours. Simple and over time can be effective if enough people fall for it.

  14. Yes, daily playing Counter Strike 2. Some also cheat just to piss off westeners.

  15. it was a case since 2022, but mostly to avoid well ‘stigma’ of being russians or shift and muddy the blame for war. Still a shitty move.

  17. I’m quite sure a lot of people I’ve met were Russians living in Canada pretending to be Ukrainian just for safety. But they weren’t aggressive or belligerent. Most people Russian/Ukrainian I met before 2022 all said they were Russians even a girl I dated briefly, who was born and raised in Kiev, she said she was Russian not Ukrainian. Now no one says they’re Russian.

  18. The type of behaviour can be interpreted as **Black Propaganda**

    [Black Propaganda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_propaganda) (Wikipedia)

    >***Black propaganda*** *is a form of propaganda intended to create the impression that it was created by those it is supposed to discredit. Black propaganda contrasts with gray propaganda, which does not identify its source, as well as white propaganda, which does not disguise its origins at all. It is typically used to vilify or embarrass the enemy through misrepresentation.*

    The British were experts at black propaganda in WW2.

  19. I assume those Ukranian Language demand threads on Steam Discussions are one of this kind.

  21. In 2022 I thought I was hiring a Ukrainian moving company, but everyone who came to the house were actually Russian. They were nice enough, but they were definitely pretending to be Ukrainian. It was only after someone pointed out that they were speaking Russian that they admitted they weren’t actually Ukrainian.

  23. There are plenty of crazies, on Xitter and on Reddit I’ve met people pretending to be Ukrainian and clearly using Google Translate showing they didn’t know any Slavic language. In real life, I’ve met a person who was begging under the guise of a refugee from Ukraine and ran away when being asked basic questions about his legend.

    OP, It’s not likely an organised campaign just some rando acting out.

  24. Mostly online, but a few basic clues, such as their user history and status, are typical give aways.

    One guy who did a piss poor job has been deridedly nicknamed Misha. He usually pops up to post Ukrainian vehicle losses. But he always claims stupid locations and times.

    Like posting Ukrainian losses in Kursk during Winter or so he claims, but there was one continuing flaw he still hasn’t figured out:

    Snow

    He posts losses with what looks like Summer conditions and claimed them to be Ukrainian losses in Kursk during Winter, but other reports showed snow, in some areas up to two meters, others up to just a meter.

    And that most combat had been Ukrainians in trenches and Russian and North Korean soldiers attacking over open fields in green uniforms against the white snow.

    At first, people thought him Ukrainian since the name was a variation spelling of Ukrainian Strong. Now we know otherwise, and I usually personally drop in on him because I happen to be scrolling through when he posts, or I get a notification of a drop.

    I still can’t believe he said it was 10 degrees Celsius in Kursk with snow on the ground when I called him out for more Summer time losses.

    And then some vehicles were obviously physically moved around or didn’t have unit markings confirming identity when pictured.

    Heck, one vehicle with metal bits reaching the ground didn’t have both melted metal on the ground, and the ground wasn’t burned.

    Interestingly, the tires also had fresh dirt caked on as well.

  25. That’s a unprovable claim actually, unless you have evidence for the particular case.

  26. I’m sure this happens all the time, but take care not to start viewing people with absolutism because of current events. There are plenty of Ukrainians who are dicks and plenty of Russians who are lovely, just like every other nationality on earth

  27. There is no need for this in my braindead country where people straight up believe lies without any second thought or a source, just because.

  28. They are doing it since beginning of the war – they travel to Europe and pretend to be Ukrainian so that they can get better service at the restaurants and stores – and in return they act like assholes and people think that Ukrainians are awful people

  29. I know cases where Ukrainians managed to achieve that by themselves, unfortunately

  31. I’ve met a saddening amount of Russians, who were born and raised and living in Germany, who didn’t condem the Russian invasion. “The Germans also tried to conquer countries, now Russia is trying.” And I’m like, bro, it ended up with Germany becoming a wasteland, the Germans being hated for decades and still not having recovered from the trauma and guilt they carry with them today.

    You honestly think this is a positive outlook? Something to look forward to, something to be proud of?

    They didn’t even live in Russia. They don’t even want to live there! But they support the idea of Russia turning another country into Russia because they feel it’s a good thing for Russia.

    It’s not a good thing for them. They don’t seem to understand how difficult things have been for Germany after the war. Germany did a good job at handling the situation as well as they could, but that story is still not over yet and each and every German struggles with it today in one form or another.

  32. I have not met such people, but I know that they exist. Usually, they do it for money. At the same time, even pretending to be Ukrainians, they do not have the courage to criticize Putin or anything like that, not to mention their mediocre knowledge of the Ukrainian language. They act in a very primitive way, but this, unfortunately, has a certain effect.

  35. When the tines war was started, there was an ukranian telegram group photos. Making fun of earthquake wounded turkish civilians and stuff. Big ukranian flag on the group photo. Turns out they are russians

  36. Ah the old trick.. they also pretend to be Ukrainians to show that that are actually not against Russia and we are one people and bla bla bla..

  38. There is a website that conducts online “IQ tests” and ranks the results by country:

    https://international-iq-test.com/en/test/IQ_by_country

    You can notice that Ukraine is pretty low, the lowest in Europe, in the list. Apparently, Ukraine’s result was spammed by Russians with a VPN:

    https://i.postimg.cc/kX3XDMVc/photo-2025-05-25-05-18-04.jpg – Notice the name “Porosenok”, Russians use this word a lot to dehumanize Ukrainians.

    And then, Russian propagandists refer to this list and talk about how stupid Ukrainians are.

  39. I’ve met a few Russians who pretended to be Ukrainian, and I only noticed because I speak Ukrainian myself (and can and I can distinguish the Russian spoken in Ukraine and Russian-Russian). I don’t think these people were doing it to harm Ukraine’s reputation — it just seems like it’s easier for them to live abroad that way.

    Once, during an exchange visit with my Ukrainian colleagues, we were at a government office in the U.S. We ran into a girl at the cafeteria who was introduced to us as “Ukrainian.” Of course, my colleagues and I greeted her in Ukrainian and started asking where she was from. She didn’t say anything — just gave us a look that said a lot. We quickly understood she wasn’t Ukrainian,shared this with our guide, and moved on.

    Another time, I was at the Prague Zoo with friends. We heard a family speaking Russian nearby. One of my local friends said, a bit loudly in English, “Even here, there are Russians.” It wasn’t very polite, but honestly, their kids were screaming so much that it was hard not to notice. Then the women from that family said they were “from KIEV.” I asked her a basic question in Ukrainian: “What’s the name of the [administrative] district where you live in Kyiv?” She didn’t reply and they just walked away.

    But the worst moment was when I was traveling alone. At the Munich airport, a man came up to me and said he was from Odessa. He spoke Russian and kept trying to talk about the war. He started following me, and I had to ask security for help. Later, I saw him show the guards a German passport. So I really don’t know who he was

  40. Yes, and not just as Ukrainians when online. It is one of their go-to troll tactics.

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