“Childbirth only in Ukrainian.” Azarov shared an AI-generated fake

Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov spread a fake about allegedly language requirements for laboring women in Lviv. He posted an image of a fabricated information placard according to which women were supposedly urged during labor to shout exclusively in Ukrainian. In reality, the image was created with the help of artificial intelligence. This is reported by Hlaikom citing Azarov's post.

The former prime minister used the fake story to criticize Ukrainian language policy. He began his post with the assertion that Ukraine had allegedly “long since transformed into a country of absurdity.”

screenshot from Telegram

Next, the former prime minister cited a series of statements about the use of the Russian language in Ukraine, after which he asserted about allegedly new rules in the Lviv maternity hospitals.

According to Azarov, future mothers allegedly began receiving special placards with the instruction to shout exclusively in Ukrainian during labor. He attributed this rule to the claim that a “true Ukrainian” supposedly should not hear the first words in Russian.

In reality, the information spread by the former prime minister is a fake. The story about allegedly unusual language requirements for laboring women was spreading by Russian and pro-Russian outlets even before Azarov's post.

The fake was based on an image allegedly of an informational placard from the Lviv Regional Clinical Perinatal Center. The picture shows a woman in a vyshyvanka and includes text recommending not to use Russian even during labor.

As a reminder, Russian propaganda previously spread a similar fake connected with Lviv and language issues. Then a fabricated story appeared in social networks claiming that a child at a city kindergarten allegedly did not receive a Christmas gift because they spoke Russian. In Lviv City Council, this information was refuted and called it manipulation.