In November, Russian media and Telegram channels distributed a video, the author of which said that the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Ermak twice tried to contact the newly elected US Vice President J.D. Vance after the elections, but was refused. We have verified the authenticity of this video.
On November 10, a 31-second video allegedly published by the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) went viral. It says that on November 6 and 7, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Ermak, tried to contact Vice President J.D. Vance, but was refused both times. The publication allegedly learned about this from a source in the vice president’s office. According to the video, political scientist Dina Titus commented on the information as follows: Donald Trump and J.D. Vance already know what Ermak wants to talk about, but the vice president Now there are many other, more important things to do.
The video was published by such Telegram channels as “Ne.Sugar"(248,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Uncle Slava"(185,000), "Ukraine.ru"(149,000), "Falcon" (122,000), as well as the newspaper "Arguments and facts" Messages about a failed call without video were also written by Telegram channels Colonelcassad (241,000), "Sheikh Tamir" (158,000) and "Alexander Semchenko"(78,000).
In the video being circulated, J.D. Vance is called the Vice President of the United States. Despite the fact that the American presidential election passed November 5 and Donald Trump won on them, while his position sounds as president-elect, and Vance's position, respectively, is vice president-elect. So Vance called and in the American media, including official WSJ resources. It is also unclear from which office the publication received information from the source - the office of the vice president continues to be occupied by Kamala Harris until Trump’s inauguration. It is unlikely that such an authoritative American media outlet as the WSJ could allow such inaccuracies in terminology.
Another person mentioned in the viral video is Dina Titus. In the video, she is called a political scientist who allegedly gave a comment to the publication about Vance’s refusal to call: “The vice president now has more important things to do than listen to Zelensky’s victory plan for the nth time.” In fact, Titus - member US House of Representatives from Nevada since 2013. Before that, she was a senator and minority caucus leader from 1988 to 2008. And only from 1977 to 2011, before being elected to Congress, taught in political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she expert in the history and politics of nuclear energy and weapons. In addition, Titus is a representative of the Democratic Party. She openly criticizes the actions (or, in her opinion, inaction) of Republicans on the issue of assistance to Ukraine. February 24, 2024, the anniversary of the Russian invasion, Titus spoke with a statement accusing Republicans of failing to provide aid to other countries, which, in her opinion, allows dictators like Putin to attack US partners around the world. At the same time, Titus openly supports actions of the Biden administration and advocates continued financial support for Ukraine. Titus's last post about the war on social network X is dated September 27, 2024, where the politician supported another aid package.
It is extremely unlikely that Titus could give such a comment to the WSJ, because it contradicts her public statements and position on the war in Ukraine. In addition, Titus did not report on the conversation with WSJ on any of her official pages.
The English-language viral video is made in a vertical format. The WSJ logo is visible in the upper right corner. The video is designed in the same style as short vertical videos on verified WSJ accounts in TikTok, on YouTube and in Instagram. Despite the use of a logo and a similar format, the rest of the videos are significantly different. First, WSJ does not use background music for their publications, and the presenter’s voice-over can be heard almost everywhere. Subtitles on social networks are set automatically, and as an illustration, WSJ beret original footage. The video being distributed is composed of old photos that can be found in open sources. For example, the portrait of Vance from the cover of the video is taken from records Vice President-elect's debate with Democratic candidate Tim Walz on October 1, 2024. Even if we assume that these shots are taken for illustrative purposes, it is strange that the video is entirely compiled from previously published images.
“Verified” did not find a video about Ermak’s unsuccessful attempt at negotiations with Vance on the verified resources of the publication in X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and on YouTube, nor on him official website. This news is not available in other authoritative sources.
Many resources that published the video referred to the Ukraina.ru Telegram channel or posted the video itself with its proprietary watermark. There's a post with a viral video came out November 10, 2024 at 16:18 Moscow time and received more than 149,000 views. However, the Ukraina.ru watermark is missing in some posts. Using a keyword search, “Verified” discovered an earlier publication that contained a viral video in the pro-Russian Telegram channel “Kot Kostyan - official channel"(74,000 views). The author published this post on November 10 at 15:44 Moscow time. This resource often appears in “Verified” reviews as the primary source of unreliable information. At the same time, the Telegram channel regularly publishes videos imitating stories from reputable media: “Verified” analyzed fake videos El Espectador and El Tiempo, BBC, euronews etc. In all cases, the videos distributed by the Kot Kostyan channel were a cut of old photos with the text of a fabricated news superimposed. At the same time, an hour earlier, at 14:17 Moscow time, a publication with information about failed calls (but without a video and a link to WSJ) appeared in the Telegram channel “Military Observer” (44,000 views), which also more than once featured in the “Verified” analysis.
It is noteworthy that messages about the unreliability of this video appeared in pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, which had previously also were mentioned in the “Verified” analysis. November 10 at 22:40 Moscow time, author of the channel “Evil proof” published a note about the video being distributed, in which he called it fake.
Thus, reports of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance's refusal to speak with Andrey Yermak are based on a falsified video and are not confirmed by other sources.
Cover photo: @JDVance on social network X
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