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

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
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.
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
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.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
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.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
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. 
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
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.

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