Russian propagandists have been spreading fakes about the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in order to discredit him inside the country and abroad for more than a year of the full-scale war. The journalists of «Trybun» analyzed the most absurd ones.
Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to lay down their arms
In March 2022, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, TV channel «Ukraine 24» showed a fake appeal made by Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he allegedly called on the Ukrainian military to lay down their arms and return to their families.
The false appeal was the following: «Dear Ukrainians! Dear defenders! Being the president was not so easy. I have to make difficult decisions. At first, I decided to return Donbas. It's time to look each other in the eye. It failed. It only got worse. Much worse. There is no more tomorrow. At least for me. I have decided to say goodbye to you. I advise you to lay down your arms and return to your families. It is not worth dying in this war. My advice to you is to live. I am going to do the same.»
Later TV channel «Ukraine 24» commented that hostile hackers had interfered with the work of the information tape and the «Sohodni» website.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy debunked this fake.
«As for the latest childish provocation with advice to lay down arms, I only advise that the troops of the Russian Federation lay down their arms and return home. We are already at home, we are defending our land, our children, our families. So, we are not going to lay down any arms until our victory,» - Zelenskyy said in his video appeal.
Zelenskyy is ready to admit that Crimea is Russian, and the «republics» in Donbas are independent
Russian media spread another fake in March 2022. Fact-checkers from StopFake debunked it. President Zelenskyy did not speak about Ukraine's intention to recognize Crimea and the «LPR» and « DPR» as Russian, Russian terrorists and Putin personally are fully responsible for the deaths of Ukrainians.
Zelenskyy fled from Kyiv
One of the most popular Russian fakes that was published in the spring of last year: Volodymyr Zelenskyy fled from Kyiv.
The new fake was accompanied by the following text: «Zelenskyy records a video on his phone, then there is a montage gluing, another camera is switched on and the picture behind him disappears.»
However, if you add a clipped piece of video, it is clear that the picture in place is a large frame around the picture itself.
Zelenskyy is seriously ill
As a result of a hacker attack, this message was spread on Ukrainian radio stations. Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself debunked the fake.
« Russia launched another fake that the state is not controlled by President Zelenskyy as he is in hospital, or rather, in intensive care because of a serious health condition. So, here I am in my office, and I have never felt as good as now. And the bad news for those behind such fakes is that I am not alone. There are 40 million of us. And with all due respect to old age, 44 is not almost 70,» Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy has a Russian passport
Russian public spread messages saying that the President of Ukraine has a Russian passport, and even published a screenshot of the «document»
The screenshot shows the date and place of «receiving the passport»: Orikhovo-Zuyevo, Moscow region in 2001. However, the body that allegedly issued the passport was incorrectly indicated.
In 2001,the passport and visa service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was responsible for it. Therefore, the document must be issued by the «department of internal affairs of the city». Zelenskyy 's photo was taken from the Internet.
The conflict between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi
A large number of sites and publics in social networks were used to spread this propaganda. In particular, Russian propagandist Anatolii Sharii and «Russian soldiers» also spread this fake.
On some resources, propagandists unsuccessfully used a translator again and called Zaluzhnyi «Zalivnyі».
The Center for Countering Disinformation wrote about this fake.
«Pro-Kremlin mass media and Telegram channels began to report «insider» information about the conflict between the teams of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi,» the Center for Countering Disinformation said.
According to Russian propagandists, «incompetence and betrayal» in the direct management of hostilities and «in the defeat of the Ukrainian army during the two years of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's rule» formally caused the conflict.
In the occupiers' opinion, the actual reason is the following: closed polls show that Valerii Zaluzhnyi can beat the current President of Ukraine in the presidential elections, as he does not have such anti-rating as Volodymyr Zelenskyy.»
«In fact, such informational «dumps» are part of a destructive informational and psychological operation conducted to split Ukrainian society and create foci of political instability,» the Center under the Council of National Security and Defense of Ukraine emphasized
The Ministry of Defense also debunked the fakes as Zaluzhnyi was allegedly offered the position of head of the Ministry of Defense in some variations. However, after numerous refutations Russian mass media published another fake: «The US did not allow to fire Zaluzhnyi.»
A fake site to discredit Zelenskyy in Western Europe
In September 2022, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian special services had created a fake website to discredit the President of Ukraine in the countries of Western Europe.
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate, the administration of the Russian dictator has created a new structure affiliated with the Russian special services.
«Its main task was to implement an informational «action» aimed at discrediting the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the countries of Western Europe. The first fraudulent project of this action was the fictitious website of the «Zelenskyy's Foundation» in German: https://zestiftung.com,» the intelligence report said.
The Main Intelligence Directorate emphasizes that this site is not official and it has nothing to do with Ukraine.
«This fraudulent site was created for Russian informational influence on the European media space. The Russian special services also created a base of opinion leaders and bloggers to distribute the materials of the so-called Zelenskyy's Foundation. Warning! Any cooperation and dissemination of information about the so-called Zelenskyy's Foundation will be considered cooperation with the Russian special services.»
Fakes after the meeting between Zelenskyy and Biden
Russian propagandists launched a wave of fakes after the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United States of America and his meeting with Joe Biden in December 2022.
The statement in the Russian media is the first fake. Russian media wrote: «At the press conference after the negotiations, Biden said that Zelenskyy was open to dialogue about peace with Russia, Zelensky nodded in confirmation.»
The second fake is a video that propagandists published on the Internet. Іt allegedly shows Western weapons sent by allies to Ukraine, on the territory of Syria. Similar fakes have appeared before, but representatives of our state and the US have repeatedly refuted them.
An arsenal of messages about: «foreign governance», «Ukraine – a puppet of the West», the «interest» of the USA in the continuation of the war and the «peacefulness» of the Russians was also involved. These messages were most actively distributed: Zelenskyy went to the United States to ask for money, and the Americans want to deceive him, Zelenskyy is ready to make concessions to Putin, and Biden supports it, the meeting of the presidents is an attempt to divert attention from domestic problems, and the main message of the disinformation campaign became the statement that Zelenskyy did not achieve the goal of his visit to the US.
In fact, the meeting between the two presidents demonstrated that the US is determined to support Ukraine in its struggle for freedom. After the negotiations Zelenskyy and Biden clearly state that they have no illusions about Putin and Russia, they don't consider territorial concessions, the United States confirmed its readiness to strengthen support for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy's drug addiction
In October 2022, information was spread on the Internet that Radio Svoboda, referring to an article by The Washington Post, published a news story under the headline: «WP: Zelenskyy's addiction to drugs does not prevent him from fulfilling the tasks set before him.» As evidence, they cited a screenshot from the Radio Svoboda website with an article from October 13.
However, neither Radio Svoboda nor The Washington Post published an article about the drug addiction of the President of Ukraine. There are no articles with similar titles on the sites either.
In addition, in one of the videos, where the President of Ukraine communicates with Elon Musk, propagandists added something very similar to drugs scattered on the table.
In general, fakes about Zelenskyy's alleged drug addiction are often published online. However, there is currently no evidence of this information.
Allegations that Zelenskyy uses drugs first appeared in February 2019, when he was a presidential candidate. At that time, Zelenskyy and his opponent Petro Poroshenko tested their blood for drug content. The blood tests of both candidates did not show the content of psychoactive substances. However, the Russian media still continue to spread numerous fakes about Zelenskyy's drug addiction.
Zelenskyy has a double
Russian propagandist Volodymyr Solovyov « saw» Zelenskyy's double. He published several photos where, allegedly, there is a person behind Zelenskyy, who, according to Solovyov, looks like him.
«Double, he has a double! Hahahahaha, my God, I didn't even believe it at first! He even tried to check the official YouTube channel of the Ukrainian government. The double accompynies Zelenskyy all the time, and he sometimes goes instead of him. Here is the answer to how it happened that Zelenskyy «heroically traveled to Bakhmut and Kherson,» he wrote.
After that, the Russian mass media began spreading information about the double.
In fact, Maksym Donets, the bodyguard of the President of Ukraine, is depicted in all the indicated photos. In addition to the fact that the «double» regularly appears in public with the head of state, he still does not look like Zelenskyy at all.
The Center for Countering Disinformation emphasized that propagandists easily invent such fakes, because looking at Putin's doubles, they themselves cannot recognize the real one and prove its existence.
Zelenskyy's trip on a luxury train
On April 5 2023, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Warsaw and met with the President of Poland Andrzej Duda. It caused another wave of fakes. Russian Telegram channels posted the cover of the Polish daily newspaper Fakt, which depicts the President of Ukraine with his wife against the background of a luxurious train car.
The President of Ukraine did use a luxury train for his trip, but such trains are not only available to privileged persons. Every Ukrainian can travel in a train car salon if s/he submit a written application no later than 5 working days before the departure of the train. Read more about train car salons of Ukrzaliznytsia on its official website: https://bit.ly/3zMXNiW.
Zelenskyy called on the North Atlantic Alliance to launch a pre-emptive strike on Russia
A video in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy allegedly calls on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to launch a pre-emptive strike on Russia to deter it from using nuclear weapons has been widely shared on the French segment of Facebook, Twitter, Telegram and YouTube this spring.
The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security noted that such messages were accompanied by the following text:
«Zelenskyy is asking NATO for a 'preemptive strike' (we understand that this is nuclear) against Russia. How long will the French media and politicians support this patient?»
However, such publications did not indicate that it was an episode from Zelenskyy's online speech at the Australian Lowy Institute. It took place on October 6, 2022.
The journalists of StopFake fact-checking project noted, in this address, the President of Ukraine did not call anyone for a nuclear attack on Russia.
Zelenskyy's press secretary Serhii Nikiforov explained that the President was talking about the period until February 24. It happened when such measures had to be taken to prevent Russia from starting a war.
Farewell ceremony for Zelenskyy
Propagandists also use the video from the farewell ceremony for the Ukrainian military, trying to turn society against Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
An edited fragment of the farewell ceremony for the fallen defender of Ukraine, where people knelt down to pay their respects to the serviceman, is being distributed online. Propagandists try to deceive users, assuring that Ukrainians are thus begging the head of state to resign.
«Zelenskyy, look, we are on our knees and we beg you to left your post» the Ukrainian text is superimposed over the video.
The Center for Strategic Communications found out that one of the Russian publics started publishing the edited video in the Telegram messenger, which controls a network of bots pretending to be Ukrainians. Russian experts gave them instructions on how to properly deceive the real residents of Ukraine and «inflame hysteria», in particular, they recommended using the image of an «angry patriot» and reacting aggressively to criticism during exposure attempts, accusing opponents of wanting to lose their defenders.
«I said, I am for Ukraine, the Heavenly Hundred, Euromaidan and so on, but brothers! Think about what our government is doing to us!» - the Russian propagandists' manual tells.
«Zelenskyy» collects donations through the nostrils
At the beginning of April, Russian propagandists spread another fake about Zelenskyy. This time, a video showing a stand allegedly in a Milan square with a photo of the head of state and holes in the nostrils was published. Donations for Ukraine are allegedly collected through these holes in the nostrils. The Center for Countering Disinformation analyzed the video and concluded that it was fabricated.
«On one of the fragments, it is clearly visible how a couple of a respectable age has an unnatural look, due to the unprofessional use of video editing programs. The author of the video uses different contrasts to hide the fabrication of the video material. In order to disguise the manipulations with the video material, the Russians also made a lot of pasting of footage,» experts emphasized.
Messages about fake graffiti allegedly made in various European cities were also spread to ridicule Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Allegedly, graffiti in New York depicted Zelenskyy as a locust that «feeds» on the American budget, and he was depicted as a pimple in Berlin.A sculpture of «Zelenskyy's nose» was allegedly installed in Milan, because it reminds of «drug addiction». For this purpose, fake covers of satirical magazines Charlie Hebdo, El Jueves, Titanic, etc. Were used.
The alleged new brand, which was released in Poland, were also spread on social networks It depicts Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a mustache similar to that of Adolf Hitler.
Relations between Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian army worsened
Agitprop wrote that the relationship between Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian army worsened because of constant defeats that make the President quite dissatisfied. The reports also adds that Zelenskyy is losing his authority and power. However, agitprop did not provide any evidence and did not explain what kind of defeats it is about.
Both Zelenskyy and Ukrainian government are lying
The popular message was that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a bad president who will soon betray his people because he has no intention of fighting Putin. Russia even tried to launch a deepfake in which Zelenskyy allegedly said that Ukraine would capitulate and he would go abroad. Russian propaganda launched similar fakes about President's escape not only in the first months of the great war, but also after the first massive missile attacks on the energy infrastructure – in October 2022. Then, the propagandists launched a fake that Russia was hitting the «decision-making centers». A rocket allegedly hit the building of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine will capitulate soon, Zelenskyy is leaving the country. However, propagandists confused the dome of the Kyiv city teacher's house, which was hit by a rocket, with the dome of the Verkhovna Rada, which is actually located in another place.
The thesis that the Ukrainian government was profiting from the war was also widespread. The war does not end because Zelenskyy and his associates are making money from it. In particular, they do it by selling weapons received from partner states.
In autumn, Russian propagandists invented another way of so-called profit for the Ukrainian authorities. Agitprop began to replicate messages about selling electricity abroad in time when Ukrainians are forced to sit without electricity.
