April 03, 2025

Putin's Daughter: A Battlefield Hero or a Myth?


Putin's Daughter: A Battlefield Hero or a Myth?
Maria Vorontsova, daughter of Vladimir Putin. Dvizhenye Sorok Sorokov | DSS, VKontakte

Maria Vorontsova, endocrinologist and Russian President Vladimir Putin's daughter, is rumored to have been wounded while medically assisting soldiers in Russia's war in Ukraine. Independent outlet Verstka recently revealed how this "heroic" story, reproduced in pro-Kremlin social media, may be a myth.

In early February, the search terms "Maria Vorontsova" and "Putin's daughter" rose 10-fold on the Google search engine. The story that was shared on social media said that the medic had "visited a zone of the [war] with ordinary Russian soldiers." There, she allegedly set up a mobile hospital that is said to have served over 10,000 wounded soldiers. The location of the hospital was never disclosed.

While Putin's daughter was supposedly unloading injured men off a medical train, a nearby landmine exploded. She suffered a concussion, but continued helping the wounded. Putin's daughter later received medical attention and was rehabilitated.

"Our President raised his daughter with dignity," said the viral post. The story kept being tweaked as it was published across social media. But by February, many websites had deleted the post from their platforms.

Verstka took a deeper dive, looking for ways the story doesn't line up with reality. First, the Russian army doesn't use medical trains. In April 2023, Russian state news outlet Izvestia said that Russia would start using this mode of transportation in its invasion, but there is no evidence that this initiative ever started.

Verstka also mentioned how the Russian armed forces mount mobile hospitals on KamAz trucks near the front line. No video footage of these vehicles in the battlefield has appeared since December 2024. Therefore, it's likely that no mobile hospital would be able to handle 10,000 wounded men in just a few months.

Verstka also said that medics in the battlefield tend to be surgeons, disaster medicine specialists, and anesthesiologists. Vorontsova is an internal medicine specialist; endocrinology is not on demand at the front.

The publication Provereno traced the first publication of the story back to Spiridon Borbuyev, a United Russia politician in the Sakha Republic. Provereno noted that the original post was made in Yakut on January 31. The first version in Russian has numerous translation errors, including in the number of patients in the alleged hospital.

The Russian president is notorious for keeping information about his children out of the public eye. Putin himself never commented on his daughter’s alleged heroism. 

You Might Also Like

Fleeting Freedom
  • March 16, 2025

Fleeting Freedom

A Ural journalist was released from jail, only to be re-arrested.
Eternal Putin?
  • September 09, 2024

Eternal Putin?

Russian authorities urge research institutes to submit anti-aging developments.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955