diff --git a/backend/app/rest/api/rest_private.go b/backend/app/rest/api/rest_private.go
index 5385f756d9..4185e38eb4 100644
--- a/backend/app/rest/api/rest_private.go
+++ b/backend/app/rest/api/rest_private.go
@@ -90,8 +90,8 @@ func (s *private) previewCommentCtrl(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	comment = s.commentFormatter.Format(comment)
 	comment.Sanitize()
 
-	// check if images are valid
-	for _, id := range s.imageService.ExtractPictures(comment.Text) {
+	// check if images are valid, omit proxied images as they are lazy-loaded
+	for _, id := range s.imageService.ExtractPictures(comment.Text, false) {
 		err := s.imageService.ResetCleanupTimer(id)
 		if err != nil {
 			rest.SendErrorJSON(w, r, http.StatusBadRequest, err, "can't load picture from the comment", rest.ErrImgNotFound)
@@ -129,8 +129,8 @@ func (s *private) createCommentCtrl(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 	}
 	comment = s.commentFormatter.Format(comment)
 
-	// check if images are valid
-	for _, id := range s.imageService.ExtractPictures(comment.Text) {
+	// check if images are valid, omit proxied images as they are lazy-loaded
+	for _, id := range s.imageService.ExtractPictures(comment.Text, false) {
 		_, err := s.imageService.Load(id)
 		if err != nil {
 			rest.SendErrorJSON(w, r, http.StatusBadRequest, err, "can't load picture from the comment", rest.ErrImgNotFound)
diff --git a/backend/app/store/image/image.go b/backend/app/store/image/image.go
index a5dfaee138..9365fc1625 100644
--- a/backend/app/store/image/image.go
+++ b/backend/app/store/image/image.go
@@ -140,7 +140,10 @@ func (s *Service) Submit(idsFn func() []string) {
 }
 
 // ExtractPictures gets list of images from the doc html and convert from urls to ids, i.e. user/pic.png
-func (s *Service) ExtractPictures(commentHTML string) (ids []string) {
+// Proxied images are returned only if the flag is set: this is used in image check on post preview and load,
+// as proxied images have lazy loading and wouldn't be present on disk but still valid as they will be loaded
+// the first time someone requests them.
+func (s *Service) ExtractPictures(commentHTML string, returnProxied bool) (ids []string) {
 	doc, err := goquery.NewDocumentFromReader(strings.NewReader(commentHTML))
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Printf("[ERROR] can't parse commentHTML to parse images: %q, error: %v", commentHTML, err)
@@ -155,7 +158,7 @@ func (s *Service) ExtractPictures(commentHTML string) (ids []string) {
 					ids = append(ids, id)
 				}
 			}
-			if strings.Contains(im, s.ProxyAPI) {
+			if strings.Contains(im, s.ProxyAPI) && returnProxied {
 				proxiedURL, err := url.Parse(im)
 				if err != nil {
 					return
diff --git a/backend/app/store/image/image_test.go b/backend/app/store/image/image_test.go
index 274a6fc88e..e10d783e82 100644
--- a/backend/app/store/image/image_test.go
+++ b/backend/app/store/image/image_test.go
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ func TestService_ExtractPictures(t *testing.T) {
 	svc := Service{ServiceParams: ServiceParams{ImageAPI: "/blah/", ProxyAPI: "/non_existent"}}
 	html := `blah <img src="/blah/user1/pic1.png"/> foo
 <img src="/blah/user2/pic3.png"/> xyz <p>123</p> <img src="/pic3.png"/> <img src="https://i.ibb.co/0cqqqnD/ezgif-5-3b07b6b97610.png" alt="">`
-	ids := svc.ExtractPictures(html)
+	ids := svc.ExtractPictures(html, false)
 	require.Equal(t, 2, len(ids), "two images")
 	assert.Equal(t, "user1/pic1.png", ids[0])
 	assert.Equal(t, "user2/pic3.png", ids[1])
@@ -96,30 +96,33 @@ func TestService_ExtractPictures(t *testing.T) {
 <p><img src="https://remark42.radio-t.com/api/v1/picture/github_ef0f706a79cc24b17bbbb374cd234a691d034128/bjttt8ahajfmrhsula10.png" alt="bjtr0-201906-08110846-i324c.png"/></p>\n\n<p>
 По форме все верно, это все packages, но по сути это все одна библиотека организованная таким образом. При ее импорте, например посредством go mod, она выглядит как один модуль, т.е.
 <code>github.com/go-pkgz/auth v0.5.2</code>.</p>\n`
-	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html)
+	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html, false)
 	require.Equal(t, 1, len(ids), "one image in")
 	assert.Equal(t, "github_ef0f706a79cc24b17bbbb374cd234a691d034128/bjttt8ahajfmrhsula10.png", ids[0])
 
 	// proxied image
 	html = `<img src="https://remark42.radio-t.com/api/v1/img?src=aHR0cHM6Ly9ob21lcGFnZXMuY2FlLndpc2MuZWR1L35lY2U1MzMvaW1hZ2VzL2JvYXQucG5n" alt="cat.png">`
-	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html)
+	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html, true)
 	require.Equal(t, 1, len(ids), "one image in")
 	assert.Equal(t, "cached_images/12318fbd4c55e9d177b8b5ae197bc89c5afd8e07-a41fcb00643f28d700504256ec81cbf2e1aac53e", ids[0])
+	// same proxied image, with returnProxied set to false
+	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html, false)
+	require.Empty(t, ids, "no images expected to be found")
 
 	// bad url
 	html = `<img src=" https://remark42.radio-t.com/api/v1/img">`
-	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html)
+	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html, false)
 	require.Empty(t, ids)
 
 	// bad src
 	html = `<img src="https://remark42.radio-t.com/api/v1/img?src=bad">`
-	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html)
+	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html, false)
 	require.Empty(t, ids)
 
 	// good src with bad content
 	badURL := base64.URLEncoding.EncodeToString([]byte(" http://foo.bar"))
 	html = fmt.Sprintf(`<img src="https://remark42.radio-t.com/api/v1/img?src=%s">`, badURL)
-	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html)
+	ids = svc.ExtractPictures(html, false)
 	require.Empty(t, ids)
 }
 
diff --git a/backend/app/store/service/service.go b/backend/app/store/service/service.go
index 5503712b52..345e2e18a6 100644
--- a/backend/app/store/service/service.go
+++ b/backend/app/store/service/service.go
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ func (s *DataStore) submitImages(comment store.Comment) {
 			log.Printf("[WARN] can't get comment's %s text for image extraction, %v", comment.ID, err)
 			return nil
 		}
-		imgIDs := s.ImageService.ExtractPictures(cc.Text)
+		imgIDs := s.ImageService.ExtractPictures(cc.Text, true)
 		if len(imgIDs) > 0 {
 			log.Printf("[DEBUG] image ids extracted from %s - %+v", comment.ID, imgIDs)
 		}