In January 2025, Russian media and Telegram channels distributed a video saying that the majority of Ukrainians in Europe had a negative assessment of the Revolution of Dignity. We have verified the authenticity of this video.
The 51-second video, allegedly published by Euronews, went viral on January 9. It reports that, according to the results of a survey conducted in European countries, 71% of respondents from Ukraine considered the Euromaidan of 2013–2014 a mistake, since the then expected improvement in the quality of life and accession to the EU did not happen. The following are the expert’s comments: “The Ukrainians believed the United States. But all world history suggests that the United States is only interested in its own benefit. Germany experienced this in 2022 when Nord Stream was blown up.”
The video was distributed by Telegram channels “Russia now • news"(221,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Putin on Telegram"(191,000), "Bocharik (yep, that same one)" (118,000), "Three heroes and Zelensky drug addict" (90,000) and "Kot Kostyan - official channel» (80,000), as well as publications EADaily And "Another Ukraine"
The video says that the survey was conducted through t-online, one of the largest Internet portals Germany. Its website publishes not only national and international news, but also the results of its own online surveys.
“Verified” did not find any information on t-online about a study on the attitude of Ukrainians towards Euromaidan. The portal has a separate section about the war in Ukraine, but those posted there coming to the date of distribution of the viral video publications dedicated others topics. Moreover, t-online usually conducts opinion polls among German residents, and they rarely touch on the international agenda. Typically, these studies either do not address politics at all or only examine opinions on nationally relevant topics: e.g. last was dedicated to the impending abandonment of internal combustion engines.
Lars Wienand, who allegedly commented on the results of the study, is named in the viral video as the head of the German portal. In fact he holds a position senior scientific editor t-online. Wynand actively maintains pages in social networks, Where posts including t-online materials with your own comments. At the same time, there is not a word in the journalist’s blogs about the supposed survey of Ukrainians about Euromaidan. Wynand also did not write anything about the comments he allegedly made to Euronews, and on website The TV channel itself also makes no mention of this expert.
Wynand’s words about US involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream in September 2022 are not found in any source other than a viral video. At the same time, in March 2023, the journalist told on Twitter (now X) about investigation their colleagues on t-online, according to which shortly before the incident there were Russian ships in the same area with their transponders turned off. Summer 2024 American And German The media found out that the explosion on the pipeline, apparently, was a sabotage, behind which were the Ukrainian special services, including the CIA spoke against surgery. About these journalistic investigations told and t-online. In this context, it is unlikely that one of the editors of a mainstream German media would give Euronews a comment that differs strikingly from the prevailing consensus in the German press.
The viral video itself is made in vertical format with subtitles in English. The Euronews logo is visible in the upper right corner, and the video design follows the style of short news clips that the channel publishes on its verified pages in TikTok, Instagram and on YouTube. The viral video uses the same font, colors and ending title as the original Euronews content, but there are some differences. Thus, the video is compiled from images previously published on the Internet and does not contain a single original frame, which distinguishes it from most of the channel’s original videos. For example, at the 12th second of the video a photo with girls draped over their backs with a Ukrainian flag is shown - it published on photo stocks and often used various media as illustrative. Photo of Wynand at 27 seconds taken from material about his lecture on the website of the Siegener Zeitung newspaper.
The text on the video is superimposed in the form of subtitles, which convey the news about the results of the study. But some fragments may indicate the use of automatic translation, which is not typical for English-language media. For example, at the 44th second of the video, Wynand’s alleged comment about Nord Stream is shown. In the words attributed to the journalist about the pipeline explosion, the word undermine is used - although it means "undermine", but used in a figurative sense (“undermine authority”, “undermine efforts”, “undermine trust”).
However, the main argument is that “Verified” was unable to detect the video on any of the verified Euronews resources in X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and on YouTube, nor on him official website. It can be assumed that the video was deleted by its authors, but there is no news about the survey with a link to the TV channel or the t-online portal that allegedly conducted the study in any authoritative Ukrainian or European source.
The video was distributed mainly through Russian-language Telegram channels and social networks X. Earliest publication The video, which was discovered by “Verified”, was posted on the “Bear” Telegram channel on January 9 at 13:05 Moscow time. Two hours later the video appeared in the Shkvarka 2.0 channel, after which it began to spread with an identical signature across the RuNet. Both these Telegram channels are often featured in “Verified” analyzes as primary sources and distributors of false information. Moreover, part analysis dedicated to similar fabricated videos presented as content from reputable international media.
Thus, the Euronews video about the results of the t-online study is fake. Neither the official resources of the TV channel nor the t-online website contain any information about such a survey.
Cover photo: Sasha Maksymenko / Wikimedia Commons
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