At the end of March 2024, reports appeared on the RuNet that an advertising stand in the center of the Ukrainian capital ridiculed the absence of presidential elections in the country. We have verified the authenticity of the video provided as evidence.
Since March 27, a 12-second video has been circulating online, reportedly filmed on Khreshchatyk, the main street of the Ukrainian capital. The video shows an advertisement pillar with a caricature of the country's President Vladimir Zelensky. In the TV presenter’s Telegram channel Vladimir Solovyov (263,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), the video is accompanied by the following caption: “The situation on Khreshchatyk in Kyiv: “You cannot choose the president, but you can choose beer.” At the same time, a male voice is heard behind the scenes, saying in Ukrainian: “The owners of the bar are simply immortal, n***y! Fuck, putting this on Khreshchatyk, I don’t know, these are the kind of eggs you need to have.” In the channel "Alexander Semchenko“(104,000 views) the video was commented on as follows: “It’s amazing how the SBU Gestapo has not yet responded to this. And people were imprisoned for less. These, by the way, are the first shoots of civil disobedience that experts were talking about.”
According to the TGStat service, about 150 similar posts were published on Telegram with a total of approximately 3.3 million views. Channels wrote about the video “For real"(1.7 million views including reposts from the channel "The world today with "Yuri Podolyak""), "Ne.Sugar"(300,000), Voblya (256,000), "Tucker Carlson for Russia"(95,000), "Special Operation Z"(66,000), "Signal"(44,000), "Coachman"(34,000), etc. In addition, public pages on VKontakte spoke about sarcastic advertising (examples here And here), as well as "Public news service» and other news sites.
March 31, 2024 in Ukraine should The next presidential elections were held. However, from February 2022 in the country valid martial law, and according to Ukrainian laws in such conditions, holding elections, including presidential ones, is prohibited.
As for the viral video, it was indeed filmed in Kyiv. In the background you can see the sign of the Central Department Store (TSUM), which located at 38 Khreshchatyk Street. Across the road, directly opposite the Central Department Store, in house No. 23A located cidreria "White filling". Judging by the video, the sign of this establishment stands near the clothing store "All yours» in house No. 27 on distance approximately 150 m from the entrance to the drinking establishment, and the advertising image shows an arrow pointing to the right. According to Google Maps, in the same house located a burger place with a similar name “White filling at the fountain”, although in the description of the establishment at this address there are references to the burger place Dogz & Burgerz (also spelled Dogs & Burgers). The fact is that several years ago there was a bar there that copied the style of “White Pouring”, but it closed, and in its place a restaurateur and owner original "White filling" Dmitry Borisov opened Dogz & Burgerz establishment. However, with March 24 2024 “White filling” operates at two addresses at once: Khreshchatyk street, 23A and 27 (the burger shop in this building recently closed), as representatives of the establishments told “Verified” in correspondence.
On website and on social networks (Facebook*, Instagram*) “White filling” has no mention of such advertising. Fact checkers from the Ukrainian project “Gvara Media” went to the place where the viral video was filmed and found out that the advertising sign actually stands opposite the junction of two houses: No. 27 and No. 27A, where located pharmacy.
The distance from this advertising sign to entrance to the bar amounts to about 50 m.
The photographs taken by our colleagues show that in fact the stand was advertising a special promotion for the purchase of optics that ran from February 1 to March 29. At the same time, the design of the ad from the viral video coincides with what the fact checkers captured. At the top of the beer advertisement with a caricature of Zelensky there is even a visible image of glasses.
Journalists of "Gvara Media" also requested comment from White Filling employees, who called the viral video a “crookedly made fake” based on an advertisement for optics on Khreshchatyk. “We don’t even have beer on sale,” noted a representative of the establishment. According to the menu on website “White pouring”, this bar really doesn’t sell beer.
The earliest post of those dedicated to the fabricated video and tracked by “Verified” appeared on March 27 at 13:54 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Freshness"(53,000 views). Due to the publication of various kinds of fakes, this channel mentioned in more than 20 of our analyzes and often became the primary source of the spread of counterfeits.
Thus, an advertisement with a caricature of Zelensky and the phrase “You cannot choose the president, but you can choose beer” was not placed on Khreshchatyk. Unknown once again falsified the video by superimposing (most likely digitally) a fake image on top of a genuine outdoor advertisement.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: social networks
- Is it true that an Italian bar sold beer at a 50% discount in honor of Putin's address to the Federal Assembly?
- Is it true that a restaurant in Kyiv offers its visitors kebab with “Karabakh smoke”?
- Is it true that Kiva-style cutlets appeared on the menu of one of the Kyiv cafes after the murder of Ilya Kiva?
- Is it true that a nightclub in Kyiv announced the “Fiery Makhachkala” party?
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
