Russian Families Use AI to ‘Resurrect’ Loved Ones Killed in Ukraine
Russian families use AI to resurrect – Stirring orchestral music accompanies a video of a snowy Moscow street, where billboards celebrate the end of the war in Ukraine. One fictional sign reads, “The Special Military Operation is over,” using the term favored by Kremlin officials. It declares, “Our heroes are coming home.” Below, a woman in an airbrushed image embraces a man in uniform, their reunion marked by emotional tears. This 15-second AI-generated clip, shared on Instagram by blogger Katya Jin, appears to depict her and her husband. Yet, the man in the video is a fictional representation of a real soldier who vanished at the front, his fate still uncertain.
The Emotional Impact
AI content has become a growing trend on social media since mid-2025, often created by relatives of Russian servicemen. These videos typically portray soldiers as defenders of their homeland and loved ones, sidelining the war’s devastation in Ukraine. Many viewers report being moved to tears, while others criticize the practice as ethically unsettling.
“Creating ‘deadbots’ of Russian soldiers or deepfakes of fallen troops returning from Ukraine is extremely complex and ethically difficult to assess in a clear-cut way,” says Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, a researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at Cambridge University.
The Technology Behind the Resurrections
Katya Jin’s AI videos, once a staple on her TikTok and Instagram accounts, have sparked debate. After the BBC first reported on her work, she removed the content from both platforms. Her project, which included tutorials on crafting similar videos, allowed users to order personalized clips featuring deceased relatives. Families could submit photos and prompts, and the AI would animate them with cinematic elements, like a couple embracing in a specific pose or a farewell letter placed in a relative’s hands.
Stories of Grief and Memory
Anna Korableva from Kamensk-Uralsky, a town east of Yekaterinburg, began collaborating on AI videos with her sister in May 2025. Their project, called “Farewell video,” aims to help people process “unfinished farewells” by reimagining moments with deceased husbands, parents, or children. “In the first months of working on these videos, I cried almost every day,” she shared with the BBC. Over time, she shifted focus to technical details, prioritizing the visual quality of the content.
Most requests for AI-generated farewells come from families of soldiers killed in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. While the government does not release precise casualty numbers, the BBC and Mediazona, along with volunteers, have confirmed at least 225,000 deaths. The actual toll is likely higher. Some videos feature soldiers still alive, with women symbolically shielding their husbands in angel wings.
