The schoolboy in the Russian uniform — where we fell short

On Monday, 27 July 2026, Daily Maverick published a story about a South African schoolboy who went to Chelyabinsk in Russia to receive an international photographic award. His school posted news of him receiving the award on its social media page. The posts included a photograph of the schoolboy wearing a Russian military uniform, alongside images of military equipment and an image of a Ukrainian flag, apparently captured.

The Ukrainian Association of South Africa (UAZA) posted a response to the school’s social posts, expressing outrage that Russia appeared to be militarising and indoctrinating the schoolboy. The school immediately took down the social posts.

In a later open letter to the Department of Basic Education, the UAZA said: “The prominent display of military symbols and imagery in the context of a children’s educational activity raises serious concerns that South African children, together with other children invited to Russia, may have been subjected to militarisation, ideological indoctrination and exposed to hatred of other nations as part of the promotion of Russia’s war against Ukraine.”

An UAZA official told us that they were particularly offended because they believed the images in the school’s social media post were from displays in Chelyabinsk’s museum of the “special military operation” — in other words Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

We contacted the school’s principal, who told us that immediately after the UAZA raised its objections, he had ordered the social media posts to be taken down, and that the school’s intention had only been to highlight the boy’s award.

We also spoke to the teacher who runs the photographic club at the school, who told us she did not believe the Russian government had anything to do with the schoolboy wearing the military uniform. She said the boy and his mother had visited the museum in their free time and the boy had put on the uniform to feel how heavy it was.

How we erred

We did not try to contact the boy or his parents. And we published the social media post — which was subsequently taken down by the school — which showed the boy in the Russian military uniform to illustrate the point of the story. Even though we blurred his face, anyone who knew him and had seen the school post might still have recognised him.

By not seeking comment from him or his parents and by publishing a picture, even though blurred, we failed to meet the high standards for the protection of children set in the Press Code.

Daily Maverick has multiple checks and balances in place to implement our commitment to rigorous fact-checking and ensure we maintain our readers’ trust. In this instance, that system fell short and potentially caused undue harm.

Specifically, when presented with such serious allegations, we should have scrutinised them more carefully and questioned the claims about the actions of both the boy and the school throughout the editorial process, then given them more weight to guide our decision on whether to publish the story.

We apologise to the boy and his parents for any distress or harm we might have caused them. We will learn from this experience. DM