In early December, an excerpt from the Euronews TV channel circulated, where Vladimir Zelensky and the Ukrainians were called locusts in the ticker. We have verified the authenticity of this video.
On December 5, an excerpt from a news release from the Euronews TV channel, which talks about negotiations between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Zelensky, was widely circulated on Telegram channels. The editor’s messages allegedly accidentally appeared in the running line at the bottom of the screen, where he writes: “Ali, when you edit the locusts with Scholz, add more smiles. It's too dark there. More joyful locusts and his people.” The channels that published this video accompanied it with the caption: “This is how Europeans actually call Ukrainians among themselves.”
The video appeared in Telegram channels "Uncle Slava"(182,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Russia now • news"(177,000), "Putin on Telegram" (176,000), "Kot Kostyan - official channel"(111,000), "Three heroes and Zelensky drug addict"(95,000), "Scott Ritter on Telegram"(60,000), etc.
The story talks about Olaf Scholz’s meeting with Vladimir Zelensky, which took place on December 2, 2024. Then the German Chancellor visited Kyiv for the first time in two years to negotiate with the President of Ukraine. At this meeting, politicians discussed issues of military assistance to Germany and mutual cooperation between the two countries. Following the negotiations, the Chancellor stated on an additional supply of weapons worth €650 million.
In the upper right corner of the viral video you can see the logo of the Euronews TV channel; the voice-over of the presenter talks about the past meeting of the two leaders. At the bottom of the screen there is a running line in which you can read the editor’s offensive statement. And on the right is a section with comments from social networks. Judging by the stories published on the official Euronews website, such comments are usually included in live broadcasts. Euronews does not use a ticker in its broadcasts at all.
The TV channel does not save videos of completed broadcasts, but this one plot from the viral video was actually published on the official Euronews website. The duration of the original video is 1:16, it talks about Olaf Scholz’s visit to Kyiv and the joint press conference of the two leaders. Excerpt from viral video begins at the 0:38 mark, immediately after the chancellor's speech where he explains his choice not to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine. Scholz stressed in his speech that this decision should not be perceived as a withdrawal of support, which remains comprehensive. This moment was cut from the viral video. The story published on the official website also does not have a running line at the bottom, as in other similar releases of the TV channel.
It can be assumed that Euronews noticed the mistake of its editor and published an edited version of the broadcast. However, there is no information in any authoritative source that the editor of a large TV channel called Ukrainians locusts. The video went viral mainly in Russian-language Telegram channels, and there are also posts on the social network X. It is unlikely that such a mistake by the editors on air could go unnoticed by the English-speaking audience and other media.
In their publications about the editorial error live on Euronews Telegram channels also included another video. It also depicts an excerpt from a live broadcast about Scholz’s visit to Kyiv, but from a different TV channel. The logo of the German publication Deutsche Welle is visible in the upper and lower left corners. The correspondent talks about the meeting, and on the left side of the screen a section of comments from social networks using the hashtag #for_DW with offensive statements about Zelensky is shown. How this video proves the presence of an editorial error in the Euronews broadcast is unclear, but this video also has nuances that indicate a fake.
Deutsche Welle, like Euronews, does not maintain its live broadcasts. However, judging by broadcast for December 26, DW does not have a section with comments from viewers as part of their live broadcasts.
On platform X, publications using the hashtag #For_DW none. At the same time, some posts that appeared in the viral video as comments on the broadcast were actually published in X. For example, such a comment by a user with the nickname @realMrJoeB published, but this was a response to Olaf Scholz’s post about his trip to Kyiv. The publication was posted on December 3, although the broadcast itself took place the day before, on the day of Scholz’s trip. The same situation with other comments: posts @CarlonePierre3 And @taseenb also published on December 3.
First fast about the error of the Euronews editor, who managed to find “Verified”, appeared in the Telegram channel “Odessa for victory!” December 5 at 12:16 Moscow time. The publication contained only screenshots from the fake Euronews report and a video supposedly from DW. Initially, it was posts like these that began to spread. The fabricated Euronews video first appeared only the next day - its published Telegram channel “Bear” at 06:40 Moscow time.
We assume that both viral videos were compiled from original stories from Euronews and DW, but with the help of any available video editor they were overlaid with misleading elements: a ticker supposedly with a message from the editor or comments from social networks discrediting Vladimir Zelensky. This is a common method of creating fakes about Ukraine, “Verified” has examined several similar videos from just the last month. At the same time, some of them also used channels as their primary source “Odessa for victory!” And "Bear" Rhetoric in which Zelensky is compared to locusts is also popular among propagandists: “Verified” has been sorting out such fakes since the beginning of 2023. First fake image became the cover of the satirical magazine Humor Times with Vladimir Zelensky, depicted as locusts eating money. Then there were several graffiti in different cities of the world, where the Ukrainian president is also drawn in the form of an insect. But what united all these images was not only the theme, but also the fact that none of them turned out to be true.
Thus, Euronews did not broadcast a ticker in which the editor calls Zelensky and “his people” locusts. Nor were there any offensive comments from social networks in the Deutsche Welle release. The videos distributed online are compiled from original broadcast recordings of these TV channels, to which, apparently, misleading elements were added using a video editor.
Cover photo: social networks
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