In March 2024, a video allegedly published by the British public broadcaster and dedicated to unknown details of the resignation of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine spread across social networks. We have verified the authenticity of this video.
In an English-language video lasting 1 minute. 15 sec. It is reported that after his resignation from the post of commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny received $53 million in exchange for non-participation in the fight for the presidency of Ukraine. The video was allegedly released by the BBC, and its authors refer to an investigation by the international project Bellingcat.
This news was reported, for example, “Russian newspaper", "Arguments and facts", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", TV channel "Constantinople" And Ura.ru. The video was distributed on Telegram channels Colonelcassad (267,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), “Uncle Slava"(276,000), "Evil proof"(159,000), Voblya (145,000), "Ukraine.ru» (133,000), etc.
At the end of 2023, numerous reports began to appear in the media about the conflict between the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny. According to some data, Zelensky was irritated by Zaluzhny’s articles and interviews, in which he announced a deadlock at the front and a transition to trench warfare. February 8 President sent military commander resigned, a month later Zaluzhny was appointed Ambassador of Ukraine to Great Britain. According to a theory popular in the pro-Kremlin media (but not confirmed in any way), in this way Zelensky got rid of a potential competitor in the fight for the post of head of state.
None of the publications with the viral video from the BBC contain a direct link to the original source. “Verified” studied the official resources of the British media corporation: website and accounts on social networks (Facebook, X, YouTube) - and did not find a video there about a secret reward for Zaluzhny. Since the material talks about information that was allegedly obtained by an international group bellingcat, we also studied it resources - there is no such investigation either in text or in any other format.
The presentation of material in publications also raises questions. In short vertical videos produced by the BBC V their social networks, there are almost no subtitles, and the news is voiced by an announcer or newsmaker. In a viral video, on the contrary, the main points are given in text form against the background of a video clip and an audio track that has nothing to do with it
On March 9, Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins published tweet, to which he attached a viral video about Zaluzhny with the following comment: “Another fake Bellingcat video has appeared - BBC. I really don’t understand who this is really being done for, because none of them have received any support, even in rabidly pro-Russian circles.” The next day a similar denial posted BBC investigative journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh.
Indeed, this is far from the first material in which false (or unverified) information is presented as having been discovered by Bellingcat and disseminated by the BBC. "Verified" wrote about a whole series of such fake videos, all of which were related to Ukraine. Another characteristic feature of these videos is that their distribution began on Russian or pro-Russian resources. In this case it was a Telegram channel "Sheikh Tamir”, who published the video on March 9 at 14:05 Moscow time (157,000 views, 1,400 reposts). “Verified” and other fact checkers repeatedly incriminated This channel is used to disseminate false information, usually about events related to Ukraine.
Cover photo: screenshot from video
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