Disinformation that sexual orientation is a subject taught in elementary schools in Ukraine

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On August 17 and 18, Facebook user Nona Sharabidze and other Russian-language Facebook accounts (1, 2), as well as the Russian state media outlet Царьград, disseminated information that Ukrainian schools are starting to teach the subject “Gender Diversity and Basics of Sexual Orientation” in primary grades. The posts are accompanied by a photo of a poster depicting children against the background of an LGBTQ+ flag, while the text says that the aforementioned subject is intended for third-grade schoolchildren. The poster also shows the Ukrainian coat of arms and initials – N.M. Burynska.

Russian-language accounts (1, 2, 3)  also shared a document, allegedly adopted by the teachers at Kyiv Public School No. 1, as evidence that the aforementioned subject was to be taught to elementary school students.

უკრაინის სკოლები

The claim that the subject of gender and sexual orientation is taught in third grade in Ukrainian schools is not true: 1: the illustration that resembles the cover of the book is fake. The author indicated on it is the author of school chemistry textbooks; 2) the document was not adopted in Kyiv Public School No. 1 and is falsified. It contains grammar mistakes, and words are missing. The falsification of the document is also confirmed by the administration of the school No. 1 in Kyiv.

  • What is known about the textbook?

The photographs shared by the Russian-language accounts, showing the cover of the textbook, bear the name of the Russian Telegram channel НАСПРАВДІ. This Telegram channel disseminated information about teaching sexual orientation in Ukraine on August 17. Presumably, the information about the textbook found its way to Facebook precisely from this Telegram channel. НАСПРАВДІ often writes about the war in Ukraine. However, the post about the textbook has the hashtag “Satire.”

უკრაინის სკოლები

A circulated photo of the textbook shows N.M. Burynska as the author of the textbook. Nina Mykolaivna Burynska was a Ukrainian educator who published chemistry textbooks. Burynska passed away in 2017, and the textbook titled “Gender Diversity and Basics of Sexual Orientation” under her authorship cannot be found. 

უკრაინის სკოლები

  • The document on the approval of the subject is falsified

The document circulating along with the photo illustration, which was allegedly adopted at school No. 1 in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district and thus approved the teaching of the subject for the 2024-2025 academic year, is falsified. The school’s website published the curriculum for the 2023-2024 academic year. It is the cover page of this document that is falsified, which can be established by the defect that can be seen in the corner of the page when scanning it – an identically crumpled part of the paper.

უკრაინის სკოლები

The falsified document: 2023-2024 teaching plan of the school No. 1

When examining the cover page of the same curriculum, it can be seen that several words in the falsified document are misspelled, and some are written in accordance with the principle of Russian grammar. In particular, the words “approved” (ЗАТВЕРЖДУЮ, the correct spelling is ЗАТВЕРДЖУЮ) and “Shevchenkivskyi” (Шевченсківського, the correct spelling is Шевченківського) are misspelled. Also, school in Ukrainian is spelled as школи, while in the disseminated document, this word is written using the Russian letter “ы” – школы.

Screenshot 2024 08 21 144950 Disinformation that sexual orientation is a subject taught in elementary schools in Ukraine უკრაინის სკოლები
Falsified document The document published by Public School No. 1.

One word is missing in the falsified document. The bottom right corner of the cover page indicates that the document was discussed and approved by teachers, but the word “board” is missing. 

უკრაინის სკოლები უკრაინის სკოლები
False document The document published by Public School No. 1.

The administration of Public School No. 1 in Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv told the Myth Detector that this the document has not been adopted in their school and is fake. Moreover, the educational program is a document that concerns class hours and school activities, and such a document is not created for individual subjects. The administration also noted that they have not yet approved the educational plan for 2024-2025 as it is still under development.

Sexual education is not taught at Ukrainian schools, though separate subjects – biology and the basics of health – include topics related to reproductive health, sex, and relationships.  

Fake news related to LGBTQ+ topics in Ukraine has been repeatedly disseminated, including that Ukraine plans to start teaching LGBTQ+ topics. Myth Detector regularly refutes such stories:  

About the sources:

The Facebook user Nona Sharabidze regularly disseminates anti-Western disinformation and Kremlin narratives. Myth Detector has repeatedly verified the stories spread by Sharabidze.

As for Russian-language Facebook accounts, Тамара Кодряну has also previously spread fake news, while Ирина Ярославцева is an anonymous account.

უკრაინის სკოლები


The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.

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11Topic: Identity
Country: Ukraine
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