RUSSIAN FAMILIES USE AI TO CREATE VIDEOS OF SOLDIERS KILLED IN UKRAINE

Russian families have begun using artificial intelligence to generate videos and photographs featuring soldiers killed or missing in the war in Ukraine, according to social media posts analysed by BBC News Russian. The AI-generated content typically depicts military personnel in scenes of homecoming or peacetime, often set to orchestral music and featuring reunions with loved ones. One widely-shared 15-second video, posted by a blogger known as Katya Jin, showed a woman embracing a man in military uniform on a snowy Moscow street, with billboards declaring the end of the conflict. Katya Jin's husband remains missing at the front, with his fate unknown.

The practice has accelerated since mid-2025, with relatives of Russian servicemen posting such content across Instagram and TikTok. The videos typically portray soldiers as heroes defending their country and families, whilst omitting references to Ukraine or destruction caused by Russia's invasion. In some cases, families have used deepfakes of deceased servicemen at funeral services. Katya Jin maintained accounts with 10 million TikTok followers and 50,000 Instagram followers, where she regularly posted AI videos alongside tutorials on creating them.

Responses to the content remain sharply divided online, with some viewers reporting emotional responses whilst others describe the practice as unethical and disturbing. Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, a researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, stated that assessing such content raises complex ethical questions and little remains known about its long-term psychological impact on grieving families. After BBC Russian first reported on Katya Jin's content, she removed her AI-generated videos from both Instagram and TikTok.