Ying Fang mistaken for another soprano who sang Soviet anthem in Ukraine

A Metropolitan Opera singer received death threats after she was mistaken for another Chinese soprano who sang a Soviet Union anthem in the ruins of a Ukrainian theater where hundreds were killed by Russian bombs last year.

Ying Fang, a Julliard School educated soprano who has performed across the globe, became the target of online vitriol after footage was posted of Wang Fang singing in the remains of the Drama Theater in Mariupol last week.

“I have been receiving life-threatening messages and comments about an event that completely has nothing to do with me,” Ying Fang responded in a statement posted on social media, according to OperaWire.

“The person in this video is not ME! Stop spreading hateful rumors and comments!” she continued.

“F–k Ying Fang!” was the common refrain posted across social media after the video emerged online, as an X account that appeared to belong to her frantically responded to posts explaining she was not the one who sang in the destroyed Ukrainian theater.

In the controversial video, Wang Fang — known for singing patriotic Chinese songs — belts out a triumphant number from a balcony within the ruins of the Drama Theater, where up to 600 civilians were killed as they sheltered from Russian bombs.

The song Wang Fang sang was a Chinese rendition of “Katyusha,” which was a favorite folk tune among the Soviet Red Army during World War II.

Ukrainian officials voiced their disgust over the singing of the song in the theater, which has become a symbol of the horrors of the ongoing Russian invasion.

“People died there, among them children,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said in a statement.

“To turn the theater into a tourist destination and to sing on the bones of the dead is incredible cynicism and disrespect for the memory of the dead civilians.”

Mariupol remains under Russian control since it was seized following a brutal siege.

While in Mariupol, Wang Fang met with the city’s Russian-installed government officials, the New York Times reported, while the Ukrainian government accused her of entering the city and committing “a complete moral degradation” with her performance.

Ying Fang’s management took to Instagram to issue a statement on her personal account explaining she was not the one seen singing in the Ukraine.

“Numerous individuals and accounts have chosen to ignore the facts that were published and instead inundated an altogether innocent soprano, Ying Fang, with a torrent of despicable, violent, and hideously racist messages,” imgartists said.

“Attempts to correct their errors … were met with even more viscous, hateful words based solely on the fact that Ying shares her ethnicity with the person in the article.”