BBC says story Clive Myrie racially attacked in Ukraine ‘completely false’

We’ve seen dozens of people claim on Facebook and Twitter that the BBC journalist Clive Myrie was the victim of a racially motivated attack while he was reporting in Ukraine, and that this supposedly caused him to leave the country. We’ve also been asked on WhatsApp about this.

Many of the posts contain a version of this text: “Do you know that Clive Myrie, the BBC journalist, who was reporting from Ukraine, was brutally beaten up by a group of Ukranians while he was working in Ukraine. He was viciously attacked  by a group of racist Ukranians. Clive Myrie is no longer posted in Ukraine and has returned to working from the BBC news desk, the story has been kept quiet because BBC bosses were worried that this incident might badly impact public opinion.”

A spokesperson for the BBC told Full Fact: “We can confirm that this story is completely false.”

Mr Myrie has not mentioned such a story in any of the interviews he has done about reporting from Ukraine in the past year.

And although it’s unclear exactly what he is referring to, Mr Myrie recently tweeted: “How fascinating to see a lie, fly! Don’t you just love bots!!”

The veteran journalist first visited Ukraine the day before Russia invaded on February 24 2022. Mr Myrie returned to London in early March but has been back to Ukraine since.

He has also said he plans to return to the country for the anniversary of the invasion.