At the beginning of November 2023, an advertising video went viral on social networks, in which an IDF soldier allegedly calls on Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters to leave Ukraine and join the ranks of the Israeli army, where they pay more. We have verified the accuracy of this video.
The video began to spread on the RuNet on November 1 and gained the greatest popularity on Telegram, where at the time of writing this analysis it received more than 650,000 views. In the channel "Ukraine.ru“(110,000 views) the viral post was commented on as follows: “Such advertisements are increasingly being seen by YouTube viewers located in Ukraine. From the screen, a young man in an IDF uniform, in good Ukrainian, is agitating for members of the Wesseushny with combat experience to leave Ukraine and go fight in the Israeli army for three times the salary. We approve of this approach - the fewer good specialists left in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the better for Russia. The only thing is that it is not entirely clear how exactly everyone will be able to leave Ukraine.”
Similar messages appeared in other Telegram channels, including “Observer"(195,000 views), "Alexander Semchenko"(82,000), "Russian format" (35,000), "New 🅉 Ukraine"(33,000), "Objective Evgen"(26,000), "Russia today Putin"(25,000), "ATO Donetsk 🅉 | News" (17,000), "Avdeevka.ru" (14,000), "Pavel Onishchenko"(13,000), "DPR news and reports" (13,000) and "The thrill of Dagestan"(10,000). Video posts received thousands of views on VKontakte (examples here, here, here And here) and on the social network X (formerly Twitter; here, here And here). In addition, there are publications on Japanese And English languages with English subtitles.
The 30-second video being distributed is a recording of the screen of the device on which the video posted on YouTube was opened. clip to the song Don't Speak by No Doubt. However, instead of a music video, the platform allegedly first showed an ad in which a man in an Israeli army uniform says in Ukrainian:
Guys, hello everyone! I recently returned from the front and thought about my prospects. I came across an advertisement about joining the IDF. They really need specialists with real combat experience. (At this moment, a link into English material the official website of the Israel Defense Forces, which tells how to join the IDF. — Approx. ed.) There are a lot of such people in Ukraine now. In our homeland, I served in the artillery as a sergeant, here I became a private, but I earn three times more, and the consideration of my application for citizenship will soon end. The IDF is a powerful modern army. Here you can quickly climb the career ladder, and your family will definitely find a place in Israel. (A link to the IDF website appears again. - Ed.) Follow the link provided in the description. See you!
At the top of the video there is a phrase in Hebrew “It is important to share!”, and at the bottom on a black background there are Ukrainian subtitles in which an error was made. At the 00:25 mark the following phrase appears: “And your homeland will surely find its place in Israel,” although the Ukrainian word “se” is in the dative case is written like "sobi". Moreover, this error is not only in the text - the person in the video also pronounced this word incorrectly.
“Verified” found the earliest publications with alleged YouTube advertising in Russian-language Telegram channels “Release the Kraken!" (69,000 views) and "Rough? Sorry!"(7000; in this version, Russian subtitles and the channel logo are superimposed on the video), where the video was posted on November 1 at 15:47 and 15:52 Moscow time, respectively. The authors of both posts claim that the post was sent to them by an anonymous subscriber - such a post is often made by distributors of fakes. At the same time, some publications say that this advertisement is “increasingly seen by YouTube viewers located in Ukraine,” but there is only one entry on the Internet, and with the platform’s Russian-language interface. “Nazis to Nazis. Our subscriber noticed a wonderful thing - if you surf YouTube using a Ukrainian VPN, an advertisement pops up through which the IDF recruits Banderaites with combat experience,” they write in the “Release the Kraken!” channel. However, in the viral video next to the name of the platform there is the letter combination FR, appropriate France. In the Ukrainian version of YouTube, the logo says UA.
Since the black background of the subtitles in the alleged advertisement constantly changes its location, Verified suggested that initially there could have been another text that was inaccurately hidden, while simultaneously replacing the audio track. Using reverse search Based on pictures in the Google Lens service, we found out that the original 40-second video appeared in the verified TikTok account of the Israel Defense Forces back on October 9, 2023. However, in the original there is not a word about the conscription of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers into the IDF. In fact, the man in the Hebrew video was talking about important phone numbers, including a helpline hotline and psychological assistance for military personnel. Accordingly, at the bottom of the video there were subtitles in Hebrew, not in Ukrainian, on a translucent background, and telephone numbers were shown on a red background.
In addition, “Verified” noticed that the person’s mouth in the real video and in the fake one is different. Apparently, to create the fake, the authors used an application that, using a neural network, “voiced” the fabricated video and changed the movements of the Israeli soldier’s lips.
Thus, such advertising with the recruitment of Ukrainians into the Israeli army was not shown on YouTube. Initially, this fake video appeared in pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, and the fake is based on a genuine video published on IDF social networks, in which unknown persons replaced the original voice acting and subtitles.
Cover photo: social networks
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