“In war-torn Kiev, they opened an artificial slope under the roof”? That's not true

As we have written many times in Konkret24, one of the goals of Russian disinformation is to stop Western aid to Ukraine. One of the methods is to spread messages that Kiev is wasting this aid.

In recent days, this message has found its way back to Polish social media. This is thanks to a several-second video showing a huge indoor ski slope and skiers and snowboarders descending. The recording person films from above, from the cable car, and then directly from the slope. You can also see a chairlift and a building styled like a castle with turrets.

The video also has inscriptions in Cyrillic: “The first indoor ski resort has opened in Kiev. Admission costs 400 hryvnia for a three-hour stay. 25 percent discount for the military” (translation from the editor).

“We know what the money sent to Ukraine is for. A ski lift – Protasiv Yar has been opened in Kiev. In Poland, however, electricity and food prices are getting higher and higher, so that they can have fun in Kiev”; “Meanwhile, in war-torn Kiev, they opened an artificial slope under the roof – war is war, but you have to go somewhere, and stupid Poland is bleeding money and weapons (for free)”; “A ski lift has been opened in Kiev – Protasiw Yar” – they write in Polish pro-Russian accounts (original spelling).

The recording shows the mark of the account that previously posted the video on TikTok. We checked that it has over 700,000. views. There are also several other recordings from the same place, which are also marked as Kyiv.

The Tiktok account is run in Russian. According to the description, it is supposed to depict events from Kiev and the surrounding area. From the recordings published there during the war, one can get the impression that life there was peaceful and luxurious. People are shown there spending their free time relaxing, e.g. in a zoo, an amusement park, in luxurious apartments and houses, or eating in fancy restaurants.

There are over 700 Russian comments under the video allegedly showing the center in Kiev. Internet users are outraged: “Can someone explain where the money for all this comes from?”; “For money for defense and fortifications”; “Where is the war?” – they write under the video.

We checked what is really visible in the popular recording.

In fact, the video does not show a slope in Kiev, but the largest indoor ski resort Wintastar Shanghai, which was built in the eastern district of this city – Pudong. This can be easily recognized by the characteristic buildings in the center of the resort.

The conclusion is that someone took a recording from the Chinese center from the Internet, then added Cyrillic subtitles saying it was Kiev and uploaded it to the Internet again. Additionally, he reversed the recording to make it harder to find the original. We didn't make it.

The center in Shanghai has 90,000 square meters. However, if we also include the luxury hotels, shops and the water park under construction there, it will be as much as PLN 350,000. square meters. There are three slopes with different inclinations. One of them has an Olympic training standard. Construction started in 2018. The center will finally open in early September 2024.

Therefore, the recording does not show – as pro-Russian accounts report – the newly opened Protasiv Yar indoor center in Kiev. Although this is actually the name of the Kiev ski lift. But not only is it discovered, but it has been operating for over a dozen years. It is eight hundred meters of slopes with ski lifts that operate just one kilometer from St. Peter's Cathedral. Mikołaja and two kilometers from the central station.

They work even now, during the war. In February 2023, the Italian daily “La Repubblica” he talked to skiers going there. “They say with smiles, everything seems so normal, I feel like I'm on our ski lifts, in Prato Nevoso in Piedmont or in Canazei in the Dolomites. We see how short trips allow people to forget about the macabre of war for a moment,” the daily described.