The photo of a pregnant woman escaping from a bombed-out maternity hospital has become one of the most symbolic images of the war in Ukraine. But her heroine, Marianna Vyshemirskaya, immediately found herself at the center of a brutal disinformation campaign, which resulted in hate from Internet users on both sides of the conflict.

The famous picture with Marianne, wrapped in a blanket and with a bloody forehead, flew around the world in early March. The picture was taken by journalists from the Associated Press, who were documenting the aftermath of a Russian strike on a hospital in Mariupol.

The photo spread across the Internet, it ended up on the front pages of world newspapers, it was even discussed at a meeting of the UN Security Council.

But for Marianna, the trials were not over: having survived the bombing, she, along with her tiny daughter, became a victim of misinformation and harassment.

Russia, trying to ward off accusations of hitting the maternity hospital, accused the 29-year-old Marianna of being an actress, a false imaginary “victim”. Russian diplomats even claimed that she was made up as two different women.

I talked a lot with friends and relatives of Marianne, but it was not possible to organize an interview with her for several weeks. But then she finally appeared on my computer screen, ready for a video call.

Marianne talks about the nightmare experienced in the hospital and the Internet attacks that followed.

“There are a lot of threats,” says Marianna. “That they will find me, that they will kill me, that they will almost cut my child into pieces. It’s scary.”

This is her first interview with a major Western media outlet since being evacuated to her hometown, Donetsk, in territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

Marianne seems calm and relaxed. She agreed to talk without any preconditions, but a pro-Russian blogger is sitting next to her.

I ask what it’s like to be in the middle of an information war at the very moment when you’re in a war zone and you’ve just had a daughter, Veronica.

“She chose a difficult time to appear,” Marianna notes. “But, of course, it’s better than if she hadn’t been at all. Therefore, I’m not complaining.”

An interview with Marianne can be heard on the BBC’s English-language podcast “ War Against the Truth “

Life in Mariupol before the war was completely different. Marianna advertised cosmetics on her blog, and her husband Yuri worked at the Azovstal metallurgical plant.

“We had a quiet, measured life,” she recalls. “Well, then, of course, everything turned upside down.”

In her blog on Instagram, Marianne shared her joy from the anticipation of motherhood.

But by the time it was time for Marianne to go to the hospital, Mariupol was already under heavy shelling.

On March 9, she was talking to her roommates when an explosion sounded – “a little further away.” Marianne threw a blanket over her head.

Then there was another explosion, loud.

“And the smell of dust rose. Everything flew around, fragments and so on, and rang in my ears. This ringing stood in my ears for a very long time. And when I lifted the blanket and began to examine everything around, I saw that the windows flew out along with frames and glass , and all the non-load-bearing walls collapsed. Only the load-bearing walls remained,” says Marianne.

After that, the women were evacuated to the basement, where they hid for some time with other civilians.

Marianna’s forehead was cut with glass fragments, but the doctor said that she did not need stitches.

She says that when everyone began to leave the basement, she wanted to take the children’s things from the destroyed ward on the second floor, and asked the police to help her.

“There would be nowhere to take new things. I took absolutely everything that was prepared for the child from home,” she explains.

As Marianne stood outside the hospital waiting to collect her belongings, she was captured by an Associated Press photographer. Once again, he photographed her inside the building as she descended the stairs.

These photos – along with a picture of another woman, seriously injured, on a stretcher – went viral on the Internet.

Soon a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel began to lie that the footage was staged. On the sole basis that Marianne was a beauty blogger, the authors stated that she was an actress disguised as a victim.

This lie has been repeated many times by high-ranking Russian officials and state media.

They even stated that in the photo with another pregnant woman, on a stretcher, there was also Marianna, although even with the naked eye you can see that these are two completely different women. The woman on the stretcher and her unborn child subsequently died from their injuries.

Marianne herself, who needed to get to a safe place, was not aware of the photos and these statements for several days.

By that time, her Instagram was flooded with messages and comments with accusations and threats. She was horrified by both the trolling and the trumped-up charges.

“It was unpleasant to hear, because I really experienced it all,” says Marianne. But she refrains from direct criticism of Russian officials who spread lies about her.

Instead, she criticizes the Associated Press.

“I was also offended from the other side that the journalists who posted my photos on the network, they did not interview other women in labor who would confirm the situation, that it really happened. It turned out that only my comments, only my photos” , – shares Marianne.

Marianna believes that the testimonies of other women in labor would help get rid of unfair accusations.

“It turned out that only my comments were there, and people – maybe rightly – had some impression that it was all staged,” she complains.

But according to Marianne herself, she was among the very last patients evacuated from the basement, and the Associated Press journalists got to the scene shortly before. Journalists also interviewed other people near the hospital. And they had nothing to do with the appearance of lies, then spread by Russian officials.

We have contacted the Associated Press for comment.

A few days after the shelling of the maternity hospital, Marianna gave birth to a daughter, Veronica, in another hospital.

Like thousands of other people, Marianna and Yuri tried to get out of Mariupol in any way. For several weeks it was impossible to get in touch with them. As a result, Marianne’s relatives told me that the couple managed to leave the city, but their trace was lost. Then, in early April, it became known that they were in the Donbass.

Marianna gave an interview to Denis Seleznev, a blogger who actively supports pro-Russian separatists. Some expressed doubts about how frankly Marianne could speak.

“I had to describe the whole situation as it happened, as I saw it with my own eyes,” Marianne tells me.

My conversation with Marianna was also organized through Denis. She talks to me from his house. Denis is present during our conversation, but does not interrupt. Marianne’s relatives and friends assured me that she was now safe.

Much of what she tells me in the interview debunks the false claims of Russian officials.

The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that the explosion took place near maternity hospital No. 1, which in fact did not work with patients at that time.

However, according to the BBC disinformation department, Marianne was in Maternity Hospital No. 3.

We have contacted the Russian embassy in London with a request for comment.

Marianna confirms that the hospital, on the territory of which the maternity hospital was located, was active, patients were observed there. The Russian authorities claimed that it no longer functioned as a medical facility.

Russia has also claimed that the building was taken over by the Azov Regiment, which Moscow calls a “Nazi” organization, a claim Ukraine denies.

From Marianna’s interview with Denis, Russian officials also selected isolated, out-of-context phrases that created a narrative that Ukrainian soldiers allegedly used Marianna and other pregnant women as human shields.

But Marianna tells me that there were no soldiers in the building where she was.

According to her, she saw Ukrainian soldiers in the oncology department, located across the building from the maternity ward, however, she does not know if they had a base there.

And yet, Marianne’s phrases from an interview with Denis Seleznev were used by the Kremlin in order to come up with new lies.

Russian officials seized on her words that she did not think the hospital bombings were caused by an air raid. So it was Ukrainian shelling, they said.

“A distinctive sound is emitted by an airplane when it flies, it is impossible not to hear it,” Marianna says in our interview, adding that she has not heard such a sound.

But the Associated Press has documented evidence that there was an airstrike, including on video of the sound of the plane. In addition, a soldier and a policeman are talking about the air raid on the video at the scene.

In addition, the photographs show a giant crater, which, as weapons experts confirm, could only be left after an aerial bomb.

“I didn’t see this funnel personally, but I saw the video,” says Marianne.

“In fact, I can’t blame anyone, because I didn’t see with my own eyes where, what exactly was,” she adds.

This controversial moment caused another wave of bile from the trolls.

“On the part of some it was that I was an actress. On the part of others, that I was lying about the fact that there was no air raid,” explains Marianna.

Even among the people she considered friends, there are those who do not believe her. For example, beauty blogger Yaroslava, who lives in Russia, believes Russian TV claims that Marianne was in the production.

“I think that Marianne played her part. That Ukraine needed the Ukrainian military to blame everything on Russia,” Yaroslava told me. She has since unfollowed her ex-girlfriend on Instagram and doesn’t talk to her anymore.

“It’s annoying, of course, when friends believe in something that I didn’t do, that I’m not capable of, because for me conscience has always been above everything,” Marianna answers this.

But she noticeably perks up every time the conversation returns to her daughter, Veronica.

Marianna returned to her blog and in a recent post asked her followers not to leave if they are interested in reading about cosmetics, diapers and the ordinary life of a young mother.

Her answer to those who wish her harm is “go in peace”.

But after, unwittingly, Marianna found herself at the center of an information war during a real military conflict, her life changed forever.

“So far I’m not building any hopes or plans, because it’s unknown what will happen tomorrow,” she says.

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