Since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, many internet users have accused the press of deliberately spreading false information to the public. One of these claims involves the destruction of Ukrainian religious monuments, which some attribute to Russian forces. On September 21, 2026, an internet user posted on X, criticizing "traditional media of disinformation" for falsely suggesting that Russia was bombing Ukrainian churches. His statements were shared almost verbatim a few hours later on several French-speaking Facebook accounts. The post included a low-quality excerpt from the British news channel Sky News, which reported on the mobilization of civilians after the partial destruction of the Orthodox cathedral in Odessa, Ukraine, in July 2023. In the images, a woman appears to be picking up several large gray blocks from a pile of rubble without difficulty. This convinced some internet users that the media had used "crisis actors" — individuals trained to simulate destruction in news footage — to create the illusion of a Russian attack on the religious building. However, after further investigation, the staging theory fell apart. This topic had already been examined by France 24 and AFP in the summer of 2023. The original Sky News broadcast included a white "R" logo in the top-left corner of the screen when the images of the destroyed Odessa cathedral were shown. This is the logo of Rudaw, a media network based in Iraqi Kurdistan. Their report from the destroyed building is still available online. These images, of higher quality than those shared on social media, clarify the controversial sequence. At 1 minute 30 seconds into the Rudaw broadcast, the excerpt highlighted by internet users can be seen. In these images, the blocks carried by the woman appear more like polystyrene or rigid foam — light materials commonly used in building insulation — than concrete. Another section of the report, at 2 minutes 25 seconds, shows the same woman picking up similar blocks. These details were not mentioned in the social media posts. Many media outlets have documented the partial destruction of the Odessa cathedral, starting with AFP, whose photojournalists captured several images of the ruined building. Radio France, the BBC, Ouest France, and UNESCO have also reported on this incident. More recently, in June 2026, the Dormition Cathedral in Kyiv was also hit by Russian strikes. Satellite images from 2024 available on the mapping company Esri’s platform confirm the partial destruction of the building. The user who posted the original message on X claims to reject "the woke ideology" and refers to "Covid as a scam." He also regularly produces content about "chemtrails," a belief that the white trails behind airplanes are chemical substances deliberately sprayed to harm public health — a claim repeatedly refuted by scientific evidence. By spreading accusations of staged war scenes, these internet users use similar rhetoric to those who promote the "Pallywood" theory. A contraction of "Palestine" and "Hollywood," the theory questions the authenticity of images of destruction in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. These claims are often dismissed by NGOs and media, but they have been used by pro-Russian groups to deny the massacre of Ukrainian civilians in Boutcha in 2022.