Buzzfeed reports that a delegation consisting of Ukrainian members of parliament, a paramilitary leader, and one Georgetown professor gave a senator’s office photos purportedly of the Russian military invading Ukraine that were later debunked.
The delegation was prominently lead by Semen Semenchenko (Kostya Grishin) a self-proclaimed ‘battalion commander’. In recent weeks Semenchenko was very active in a row of ignominious defeats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Uglegorsk and Debaltsevo.
The Ukrainian delegation provided the Senator with fake photos, including such from the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia. Senator Inhofe gave these to the Washington Free Beacon. The photos are thought to have influenced Inhofe’s decision to support the calls for supplying arms to Ukraine to help its forces’ action against Donbas separatists.