At the end of February 2024, a screenshot of an emotional tweet allegedly made by the President of Ukraine went around the Network. We have checked whether this screenshot is genuine.
According to the screenshot, Zelensky's English-language tweet said: “I will sign a decree that will require all Western countries to deport Ukrainian men living there back to Ukraine. We need more men to fight, and you guys hang out and smoke hookah in other countries? If we make a common effort, this war will end in a week.”
The statement, which allegedly appeared on Zelensky’s page in X, was disseminated by such Russian media as “Podolyak", "Kherson news feed" And "VK Press" It also spread on the Telegram platform - in particular, through the channels "Sanya in Florida"(450,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Russia now" (228,000), "Uncle Slava"(184,000), "Evil proof"(166,000), "Putin on Telegram» (157,000) and Voblya (138,000).
The problem of a shortage of manpower has been facing the Ukrainian army almost from the very beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. At the end of November 2023, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Sergei Leshchenko described the shortage of soldiers as “huge” and stated that it was necessary to rotate and bring up reserves. And a little later Zelensky himself during a press conference clarified: the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine proposes to additionally mobilize another 450,000 - 500,000 people. However, the general mobilization announced in the country on February 24, 2022, continues to this day according to the same pattern - most recently Zelensky statedthat it will not be tightened until the end of the audit of the armed forces, which should be carried out by the new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Syrsky.
The official account of the President of Ukraine in X is @ZelenskyyUa. As of February 27 at page, which Zelensky maintains in English, there are no publications that are at least somewhat reminiscent of what he is looking for. There is no news about his loud statement on the websites of Ukrainian media. At the same time, the very wording of the future legislative act causes bewilderment: “A decree that will require all Western countries to deport...” The decree of the President of Ukraine cannot extend to foreign countries.
It is also striking that the surname of the head of the Ukrainian state in the viral screenshot and in the official account is spelled differently: Zelensky and Zelensky, respectively. In addition, in the second account ID there is an underscore after the last name.
The thing is that the primary source of information is another X-account, @Zelenskyy_Uaa, where the publication appeared February 26 at 03:57 Moscow time and was picked up by Russian and pro-Russian Telegram channels. This page is directly presented as satirical - the full name of the account looks like “Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Volodymyr Zelensky (joke)”, and the description says Parody account. The page of the false Zelensky is full of frivolous publications.
According to the TGStat service, this screenshot was first published on Telegram by the channel “Sanya in Florida"(more than 3000 reposts), Not once caught by “Verified” fact checkers in disseminating false information about Ukraine.
On the same day, the screenshot was reacted to in “Center for Countering Disinformation» under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. They stated that this was “another fake by Russian propagandists” designed to “spread panic and sow discord among the Ukrainian diaspora and undermine trust in the Ukrainian authorities.” And although the news was indeed spread by many propaganda channels, in Verified terms it is not fake, but political satire.
Cover photo: social networks
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