Vinnytsia OMA: Fake audio of an official shared on social media

A fake audio recording of the first deputy chair of the Vinnytsia Oblast Military Administration, Natalya Zabolotna, has been circulated on social media, reports the Vinnytsia Oblast Administration.

In the audio, Zabolotna appears to be talking to her subordinates, speaking negatively about internally displaced persons and the employment of war veterans.

Natalya Zabolotna said on Facebook that she has no subordinates in these positions with these names.

"The very conversation was constructed in such a way as to discredit the work of the Vinnytsia Oblast Administration as a body of state power, and me as an official. Such actions suggest an attempt to destabilize the Vinnytsia oblast government amid Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine," the official said.

The OMA and Natalya Zabolotna posted a screenshot from the Facebook account that posted the audio recording. The caption to the audio said: “Scandal. The first deputy chair of the Vinnytsia OMA Natalya Zabolotna calls internally displaced mothers 'mommies', and she is so fed up with war heroes and IDPs that she is 'having dreams about them.'"

Photo by Natalya Zabolotna on Facebook

As the IMI representative notes, the fake audio was shared on Facebook and Telegram. The post was shared on Facebook from the page of a man named Oleh Dombrovsky, dressed in a uniform resembling that of a soldier. However, the post was deleted almost immediately after publication. The private channel "Vinnytsia Times" was the first to share the audio recording on Telegram.

Screenshot of the earliest post with the fake news in a private Telegram Channel

According to the official, she has contacted the police and filed a statement so that the competent authorities may find out who is smearing the Vinnytsia oblast government and undermining the foundations of the constitutional order and for what purpose.