- October 4, 2026
- 11:37 pm
- World News
First, the Hasidim allegedly receive special privileges. Then Ukrainians are offered to “dress up as Jews” to avoid mobilization. After that, AI-created “pilgrims” demand a separate Uman. NAnews traced how, in a few weeks, a whole set of fakes and manipulations grew around the real pilgrimage in Ukraine — from Telegram to Russian state media.
Author: Lev Varshavsky
On September 20, 2026, the fact-checking project StopFake published a verification of a photograph that was actively spread in the pro-Russian segment of social networks at that time. The image allegedly showed a Ukrainian advertisement for renting a “Hasid costume.” It was suggested that a man could wear black clothes, a hat, and payot to hide from the TCC during the mass arrival of Jewish pilgrims in Uman.
TCC — territorial recruitment and social support centers of Ukraine. For an Israeli reader, it is easiest to explain them as structures that conduct military registration and participate in mobilization procedures. It is around the actions of the TCC that a huge number of real conflicts, emotional stories, rumors, and Russian disinformation have existed for several years.
In the story with the “Hasid costume,” only one thing turned out to be true: stage clothing of this type does indeed exist.
Everything else began to fall apart upon verification.
“Dress up as a Jew”
StopFake reported that the distributed image contained signs of synthetic origin — the SynthID marking. The fact-checkers did not find the Ukrainian advertisement itself, where the costume would be offered as “camouflage from the TCC.”
However, a real similar costume was found at the Kyiv creative workshop Mi-Parti. But they offer it not to men fleeing mobilization, but for costume parties and corporate events.
So, we have a fairly simple technique: a real item is taken, a fake advertisement is created around it, and then the picture begins to live as evidence of an allegedly existing Ukrainian phenomenon. StopFake
But more interesting than the photomontage itself was the idea that the audience was offered to accept without evidence.
If a Ukrainian needs to dress up as a Hasid so that TCC representatives do not stop him, it means the Hasid is in some special position in Ukraine.
It turns out he can do what the local cannot.
And here the story stops being just a joke about mobilization.
First, they create a privilege, then they offer to envy it
StopFake notes that some publications with the “costume” were accompanied by anti-Semitic and xenophobic comments. The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, which the fact-checkers refer to, associates such stories with the promotion of the thesis about the allegedly “privileged position” of the Hasidim compared to Ukrainians.
This is an important construction.
An anti-Semitic plot does not necessarily begin with the words “Jews are bad.” It is much more effective to show a neighbor that some group allegedly receives more than him.
Some are allowed. Others are forbidden.
Some are given money. Others are sent to fight.
Some are provided with transport. Others are caught on the street.
After this, hatred almost does not need to be explained — the audience should draw the conclusion themselves.
NAnews has already encountered exactly this sequence.
On September 11, the platform “Ukraine.ru,” owned by the state media structure MIA “Russia Today,” published a material with the headline “To the sounds of sirens and on the transport of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: Hasidim are again capturing Uman”. This is not a retelling of an anonymous Telegram channel: on the page of the publication itself, the material is marked as a publication of “Ukraine.ru.”
The word “capturing” here is especially indicative.
Every year, tens of thousands of Breslov Hasidim indeed come to Ukrainian Uman for Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year. The reason has nothing to do with Ukrainian politics or territorial claims: the city is home to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, one of the most important spiritual leaders of Breslov Hasidism.
For many Israelis, Uman has long been a well-known destination for religious pilgrimage.
But there is a significant difference between the phrases “tens of thousands of pilgrims came to the city” and “Hasidim are capturing the city.”
The second already sets the relationship between “us” and “them.”
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine transport Hasidim, and the TCC takes Ukrainians”
The material “Ukraine.ru” was built not only on fabrications. This is what makes such texts significantly more convincing than a primitive fake.
Pilgrims did indeed arrive.
Due to their number, housing prices did indeed rise.
Problems with garbage, transport, and organizing a huge religious event are also quite real.
On this layer of facts, another frame was superimposed: transport with Ukrainian military symbols, talks about allegedly special logistics for pilgrims, comments about the TCC, and the image of Jews as a group to which the Ukrainian state provides special opportunities.
We have already analyzed this material in detail in the article “The Jews stole everything and fled to Israel”: how Russian propaganda spins an anti-Semitic plot around Ukraine.
There you can clearly see another feature of this construction: a real everyday conflict gradually connects with the idea of some separate and extremely influential “Jewish power.”
And a few days later, the “Hasid costume” appeared.
It turned out to be an almost perfect plot for social networks: while the allegedly privileged Jew is being transported and guarded, the Ukrainian is left to buy payot and pretend to be him to avoid ending up in the army.
Only the “evidence” itself turned out to be artificial.
Then 200 thousand hryvnias appeared
The story did not end there.
In September, short videos began to spread on social networks, formatted as ordinary street interviews. Men in Hasidic clothing told the camera that Ukraine allegedly pays 200 thousand hryvnias to pilgrims wishing to stay in the country, helps them with housing, and provides special benefits.
NAnews analyzed this wave in the material “200 thousand hryvnias to Hasidim” and “independent Uman”: why Russian propaganda needed a new Jewish conspiracy. NAnews Israel News Nikk.Agency
The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation reported that there are no state programs providing such payments to foreign pilgrims for resettlement in Ukraine.
But the plot itself was already moving further.
Now the Jew is not just “allowed more.”
He is also paid by the Ukrainian state.
From money to a “Jewish state” in Uman
The next step looks almost caricatured, but the mechanics remain the same.
In new videos, men in Hasidic clothing already declared that they want to stay in Uman forever, create families there, and turn the city either into an “autonomous region” or even into a separate “independent state.”
StopFake checked one of these videos using HiveAI. The service estimated the probability of its generation by artificial intelligence at 97.7%. No real Jewish organizations demanding Uman’s autonomy were found by the fact-checkers. StopFake
It turns out to be a complete story.
First “they” come.
Then “they” get more than the locals.
Then the Ukrainian state allegedly starts paying “them” money.
And then “they” plan to take the city for themselves.
This is one of the oldest mechanisms of ethnic conspiracy, only now it is no longer necessary to find actors, set up a camera, and negotiate with extras for its production.
A neural network is enough.
Even a real story quickly turns into the desired plot
The mechanism is especially visible where the initial event was not invented at all.
On September 18, information appeared in Israeli Haredi media about a 49-year-old resident of Beitar Illit, returning home after a pilgrimage to Uman. At the Ukrainian border, the man was stopped, after which his relatives could not contact him for some time.
The story had real documents, real relatives, and a real person.
But literally within a few hours, versions appeared in the Russian information field that the Israeli Hasid was allegedly being sent “from Uman straight to the front”.
NAnews thoroughly reconstructed this transformation in the material “From Uman — “straight to the front”?: what is known about the Israeli Hasid and how Russian propaganda changed his story in a few hours. NAnews Israel News Nikk.Agency
This is an important episode precisely because a completely invented event is not always required to produce a propaganda plot.
Sometimes it is enough to add one unchecked conclusion to a real fact.
And then another one.
No need to invent “one office”
Here, however, it is important not to respond to conspiracy with another conspiracy.
NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency does not have evidence that every anti-Semitic message about Uman was written by one center, that any pro-Russian Telegram channel receives instructions from Russian state structures, or that all the listed stories are the product of a single operation.
Such claims would themselves require evidence.
We see something else — and that is already enough for analysis.
Russian state media publishes material with wording about Hasidim “capturing Uman.”
A fabricated picture about “camouflage from the TCC” is spread in the pro-Russian segment, with fact-checkers recording anti-Semitic comments nearby.
Synthetic videos about state payments to Jews appear.
Then synthetic “Hasidim” appear, demanding a Ukrainian city for themselves.
All stories are different.
But the supposed conclusion for the audience is surprisingly similar: Jews in Ukraine allegedly have a special status, special money, special connections, and ultimately their own plans for Ukrainian territory.
That is why a single “Hasid costume” is much less interesting than the entire sequence.
Why this is important in Israel
For the Israeli reader, there is another unpleasant layer in this story.
In such publications, the Hasid is no longer a specific religious pilgrim.
He becomes a convenient visual symbol of “Jews in general.”
A hat, black suit, and payot allow you to instantly designate a group, after which any collective properties can be attributed to it: money, political influence, connections with Zelensky, special treatment by Ukrainian authorities, a desire to acquire territory.
The real diversity of Israeli and Jewish society disappears in the process.
As does the real history of Ukraine’s relations with its Jewish communities — from the tragedy of Babi Yar to today’s Ukrainian Jews serving in the army, working in public organizations, or simply living their lives during the war.
What remains is a familiar conspiratorial character: “Jews” who act as a single entity and necessarily get something at the expense of others.
Today, to produce such a character, you don’t even need a real person.
He can be generated.
Old anti-Semitism has received new tools
In this, perhaps, lies the main difference of the current wave.
The plots themselves have hardly changed.
“Jews have special privileges.”
“Jews control power.”
“Jews are given money.”
“Jews want to take territory.”
What is new is the speed and cost of producing evidence.
A fake advertisement looks like a screenshot of a store. An artificial person in a video looks like a random passerby. The next user sees not just a statement from an anonymous Telegram channel, but seemingly a photograph, a product, an interview, a live witness.
And if in two weeks the same image goes from “they are served better than Ukrainians” to “they want their own state in Ukraine,” the question is no longer just whether a specific image is real.
The question is — what picture of the world is assembled from these images.
In the case of Uman, the answer is quite clear.
First, the Hasid is turned into a privileged outsider.
Then — into a competitor of the Ukrainian.
And then — into a threat.
It is precisely at this point that the usual fake ends and the anti-Semitic narrative begins.