DISINFO: Organs of wounded Ukrainians are secretly used for transplantations
SUMMARY
Wounded Ukrainian soldiers are also being used as biomaterial, as their organs are secretly removed for transplantation. It was not a coincidence when Zelenskyy signed a law last year allowing the removal of human organs without the patients' consent. These organs are intended for covert transplantation procedures on European patients.
RESPONSE
Disinformation aimed at justifying the Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Neither the US nor the EU initiated Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Implying that the mere presence of volunteer doctors from the US is evidence of organ trafficking constitutes a conspiracy theory.
Moscow’s claim of illegal human organ harvest and trafficking is a well-known trope in their disinfo-campaigns. As our database documents – see link below – it has surfaced in relation to Russia’s campaign in Syria against the White Helmets, against NATO, in Georgia where even former Georgian president Mikhail Sakhashvili’s wife was the target, in Kosovo and now with greater intensity also in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Transplantation of organs is a complex and time-constrained medical procedure and is impossible to be carried out in field conditions. Read the full debunk of the story at Myth Detector. According to Ukrainian laws, civilians and soldiers who died during the war are not considered as donors, reminds Vikna.Tv.
A law permitting the removal of organs without the written consent of the patient or their relatives does not exist in Ukraine. In December 2021, the Verkhovna Rada passed "Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regulating the Transplantation of Anatomical Materials to Humans."
The amendments oversee the Ukrainian Unified State Transplantation System, which operates independently of human influence and ensures cost-free transplantation for patients. Additionally, the requirement for notarized consent for post-mortem organ transplantation has been eliminated. Pro-Kremlin media attempted to portray this change as permitting transplantation without any consent, which is not accurate.
In April 2022, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the country’s foreign signals intelligence agency, warned of an ongoing Russian campaign to promote the message that Ukraine was harvesting the organs of fallen soldiers, women and children and using mobile cremating devices to dispose of the evidence. Similar disinformation efforts have been observed elsewhere as part of Russian disinformation during its ongoing aggression against Ukraine.
The topic is a “Manipulators delight”: it attracts attention because of its obvious high emotional charge. In this “click bait”-function it works similar to claims of mass graves, which always spread wide and very fast. With its smell of secret business and conspiracy it adds another layer where any debunk is exploited to further suggest that the debunker has something to hide.
Read similar disinformation claiming that Children's medical records found in Mariupol suggest an organ trafficking ring.