Russia carried out a large-scale disinformation campaign surrounding the Jewish pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) has claimed.
CCD is a Ukrainian government body that monitors and responds to disinformation, propaganda and information operations directed at Ukraine. It is part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC).
A record number of Jewish pilgrims traveled to the Ukrainian city of Uman for Rosh Hashanah this year, according to local statistics. The local Cherkasy Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 49,000 pilgrims had arrived in the city by the morning of September 11, while Israeli figures place it higher at 52,000.
Regardless, the number surpassed even pre-war years, which typically saw between 30,000 and 35,000 pilgrims. There was also a significantly increased proportion of non-Ashkenazi Jews – Sephardim and Mizrahim – which Ukrainian Jewish media said accounted for up to half of all visitors.
Numbers aside, the pilgrimage has been the subject of media attention for another reason: Russian fake news.
Russian-controlled TikTok accounts circulated AI videos with fake pilgrims
CCD reported that during and after Rosh Hashanah, Russia-controlled TikTok account networks circulated a series of AI-generated videos in an interview format.
In the videos, fake pilgrims claim that they are supposedly moving to Ukraine permanently.
The videos also contain fabricated claims about “payments from the Ukrainian government of 200,000 hryvnias,” “special benefits,” and even alleged plans to “make Uman an independent entity.”
CCD said the campaign is “entirely disinformation.”
It said there is no “mass resettlement” of foreigners and that this is an annual temporary religious pilgrimage, after which Hasidic pilgrims return to their home countries.
It also stressed that Ukraine has no government programs or financial payments designed to encourage foreign citizens to relocate to the country.
“The enemy’s main goal is to exploit the heightened attention surrounding the event in order to destabilize Ukrainian society from within and artificially provoke antisemitic sentiments,” it said.
Tracing the campaign
The Israel-based, Ukrainian-founded media site Nikk traced the disinformation campaign back further, to May 2019, when then-adviser to the Russian president Sergey Glazyev published a text suggesting the possibility of mass resettlement in southeastern Ukraine of residents of Israel and other Middle Eastern countries.
At the time, Israel’s Foreign Ministry described Glazyev’s comments as conspiratorial and antisemitic.
Fast forward seven years, an adviser is no longer needed to spread it, “all you need is AI and TikTok,” Nikk said.
Six months ago, in April 2026, researchers documented new activity by the Russia-linked Matryoshka network in the form of fake videos circulating claims that Ukraine was planning to ban Israelis from making their annual pilgrimage to Uman.
Alongside this appeared a fictional “Orthodox rabbi” who supposedly cursed Vladimir Zelensky over the Ukrainian-Israeli dispute concerning Ukrainian grain taken by Russia.
This same network then replaced the narrative with September’s one that Ukraine gives Jews special treatment, state money, and is preparing to settle them there permanently.
Additionally, on August 17, the Russian-language Telegram channel Fikrat Shabanov published a long article describing the expected arrival of approximately 30,000 Hasidim as a “rehearsal” for the future mass resettlement of Jews in Ukraine
While there is no evidence that this Telegram channel is operated by the Russian state, the content is relevant.
The Telegram article said coordination between police and border guards was described as training for the “absorption of millions of new Israelis,” while the 2026 pilgrimage was called the “last major rehearsal” before the year 5788, which begins in autumn 2027.
It also said Ukraine closed its borders to some people while Jews are allowed to arrive in the tens of thousands.
None of this is based on fact, and there is no Israeli government decision or Ukrainian government document agreeing to transferring territory or a program for resettling millions of people.
Nikk, however, spoke of how actual facts on the ground could be slightly altered to fit the ‘resettlement narrative.’
For example, on September 5, Ukraine’s National Police announced the arrival of Israeli police officers in Uman. The Israeli officers patrolled the areas where Hasidic pilgrims were staying and visiting together with Ukrainian police, emergency services and the National Guard.
Nikk noted that within the disinformation environment, open coordination between two law-enforcement systems “becomes evidence of preparations for mass resettlement.”
“Ukraine and Israel coordinating security for tens of thousands of Israelis – true. Does that mean they are training to resettle “millions of new Israelis” there? No.”
Another fact is partially true: there is a Ukrainian state program involving a payment of exactly 200,000 hryvnias, but it has nothing to do with Hasidim, Israelis, or foreigners wishing to settle in Uman.
Essentially, the trajectory looked like this: April 2026, fake reports circulate that Ukraine supposedly planned to prevent Israelis from entering Uman; May 2026 Russian AI networks promoting “population replacement” and antisemitic narratives; August 2026 “Heavenly Jerusalem” and a supposed “rehearsal” for the resettlement of millions; September 11, “privileged Hasidim” and a Russian state media report about the “takeover” of Uman; and September 14, an AI-generated pilgrim supposedly “confessing” to receiving money and planning to remain in Ukraine.
“There is no need even to invent one enormous fake story; it would quickly collapse,” said Nikk. “It is much more effective to take real Uman, real pilgrims, real police officers, a real Ukrainian payment of 200,000 hryvnias, and real everyday tensions surrounding Rosh Hashanah, and then slightly alter the relationships between them.
“The result is a story that never happened.”
