Screenshots of Anzhalika Melnikava in a gym in Minsk are circulating
However, an analysis of the images conducted by "Nasha Niva" shows that the face was most likely deliberately covered with a mask. Here's what we found.
Alleged screenshots from stories featuring Anzhalika Melnikava are very likely deepfakes
Ukrainian blogger Oleksandr Rykov (BalaganOFF) stated that he was sent screenshots from the stories of a trainer from the GYM24 gym chain in Minsk, which allegedly featured Anzhalika Melnikava, who disappeared from public view in March 2025.
Balaganov wrote that he hesitated for two days before publishing the screenshots because he didn't know if they were real or not.
"An account sent me these photos and said, 'Look, it seems to be Melnikava, very similar.' This account had never written to me before, so I hesitated, but in the end, I decided to publish them," Balaganov told "Nasha Niva." "I don't have the video, but I'll ask that account for you if they saved it."
Balaganov doesn't know why he was sent the screenshots. "Maybe because I'm Ukrainian and I definitely won't betray him," he speculates.
However, analysis of the screenshots using artificial intelligence tools shows that the quality of the face in the photos differs in terms of compression from the rest of the image. This could be a mask overlaid on the image.
We compared the face area with adjacent parts of the frame: in all three screenshots, the color variability in the face zone ranges from 219 to 525, while around it, it ranges from 1623 to 3484 respectively, which indicates a locally smoothed or blurred area.
Another sign of manipulation is the traces of local processing after repeated JPEG compression: in the face area, they are slightly higher than the average across the image, which often occurs where something has been redrawn, blurred, or inserted over the original. The face differs significantly from the rest of the photograph in terms of detail, color structure, and editing traces.
When a part of an image is simultaneously too even in color, poor in texture, and slightly stands out in terms of compression traces, this is a typical profile of local digital processing, not a normally captured face.
"My technical analysis indicates that the face in the original frames is intentionally obscured by digital blurring or a uniform filter, as abnormally low detail and color variability are recorded in this zone compared to the rest of the image. Due to this artificial 'mask,' the actual facial features are practically invisible, so recognition programs will incorrectly yield a high percentage of matches, relying only on the general outline of the head, neck, and hairstyle," such was the verdict given to us based on the available information by GPT 5.4 Thinking.
It is difficult to say more at this point. For a definitive answer, the primary video needs to be analyzed, but it is unavailable.
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Anzhalika Melnikava, a speaker of the Coordination Council, left Poland and the European Union on February 26, 2025, and flew to London. According to investigators, a day before her departure, she reserved a room in a five-star hotel in Sri Lanka, where she had previously stayed. From February 28 to March 7, Melnikava stayed at that hotel with her children. On March 7, Melnikava and her children flew to Dubai, where her trail is lost. On March 25, she stopped communicating.
The Coordination Council stated that on March 13, documents related to the organization's work were downloaded from her account.
In the same month, according to "Cyberpartisans," Melnikava transferred more than 150 thousand dollars from the funds of the Białoruś Liberty foundation to her personal account. It is also known that before her disappearance, she flew to Cuba and Sri Lanka with Alexey Labeev, an employee of Lukashenka's special services.
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Clarification. In the initial version of the article, "ChatGPT Thinking 4.6" was mistakenly written instead of "GPT 5.4 Thinking." We apologize.
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