Original article (in B/C/S) was published on 15/7/2024; Author: Mladen Lakić
Several web portals have published fake news claiming that the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra “escaped” from Ukraine to Germany. In reality, the orchestra left the country with the authorities’ permission shortly after the Russian invasion began in 2022, and this year it changed its place of residence in Germany.
On June 17, 2024, Sputnik published an article stating that the musicians of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra fled to Germany, with the implication that they did so to avoid mobilisation.
The entire Kyiv Symphony Orchestra (73 people) escaped from Ukraine along with musical instruments and received asylum in Germany, the media reports. It is said that the orchestra, two-thirds of whom are men of mobilisation age, left Ukraine to participate in the festival, but never returned to their homeland. The authorities of the city of Monheim am Rhein in North Rhine-Westphalia offered the musicians and their families accommodation and refuge for three years.
The web portals IN4S, Srpske novine and Pravda also published articles with these claims. The claim that the Kyiv Orchestra fled from Ukraine to Germany was also shared on Facebook (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). A screenshot of a Deutsche Welle (DW) article in Russian was also shared in those posts.
What are the facts?
DW in Russian published an article about the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra on June 13, 2024, under the title “Kyiv Symphony Orchestra found a new home in Germany”. The article states that the members of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra will reside in the city of Monheim am Rhein for the next three years. It is emphasized that until now the members of the orchestra have stayed in the city of Gera, in central Germany. They moved to Monheim because there were financial difficulties related to their stay in that city.
In this regard, it was pointed out that the city administration confirmed on June 12, 2024, that Monheim am Rhein will be the new home for more than 70 musicians in the next three years.
DW states that during this time the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra will work for Monheimer Kulturwerke, a company that organizes cultural events in Monheim.
The accuracy of the claim that the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra “escaped” from Ukraine was verified by the Ukrainian fact-checking web portal Stop Fake. In an analysis published on June 19, 2024, it was explained that the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra received permission from the Ukrainian authorities to embark on the “Voice of Ukraine” tour shortly after the start of the Russian invasion in 2022. The news about the tour was published on April 12, 2022, on the official website of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra.
Therefore, the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra has been on tour since 2022 and the members of that orchestra did not “escape” to Germany, as stated in Sputnik’s article. The authorities in Kyiv supported the tour so that the orchestra’s work could raise awareness of the war in Ukraine.
In accordance with the facts, we evaluate the claim suggesting that the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra fled from Ukraine to Germany “along with its instruments”, published on Sputnik, as fake news. Other publications of this claim are rated as a distribution of fake news.
