Is it true that an American TV presenter called Zelensky a little spinach when data on Ukrainian Armed Forces’ losses was shown on air?

In January 2025, a video spread on social networks: a weather forecaster on the ABC channel, instead of a map, notices behind his back a screenshot of an article about the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the war and tries to joke. We have verified the accuracy of this video.

In the 11-second clip, the presenter says that colder temperatures are expected and that this is normal after a storm. At this moment, instead of a map with weather data, a BBC article appears on the screen entitled “More than a million Ukrainian soldiers have died in two years, says the Pentagon,” illustrated with a portrait of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. “It’s not a storm, it’s a little spinach,” the presenter responded, pointing at the screen. In Telegram channels, this video was often accompanied by the comment: “The screen itself is more interesting. On it, the Pentagon points to Ukrainian losses. Maybe this photo was not taken by chance?” The video was distributed by such channels as “Russia now • news"(208,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Kot Kostyan - official channel"(78,000) and TarikNezalejko️️ (40,000), as well as users Facebook.

The screenshot of the news displayed on the screen looks similar to real BBC publications, but “Verified” was unable to find a similar note on the British media corporation’s website either by the title or by the name of the alleged author Robert Greenall.

Also, BBC journalists (presumably in line with internal editorial standards) write the number 1,000,000 in words rather than numbers. 

The choice of the BBC to create a fake screenshot is not accidental - the British Broadcasting Corporation enjoys authority around the world, so content with its logo inspires confidence even among untrained readers. That is why, as before wrote “Verified”, fake creators especially often style their products as BBC videos or news.

Using Google's reverse image search, Verified found the original video that became the basis for the viral video. It turned out that it has nothing to do with the ABC channel and was published a year ago. This is a fragment of the weather forecast on the American regional channel News12 New Jersey. On January 19, 2024, during the morning broadcast, the editors mistakenly displayed on the screen a photo of a package of baby spinach (baby spinach - this is the phrase Telegram channels mistakenly translated as “little spinach”), which was supposed to illustrate other news. Weather presenter Mike Rizzo posted video of the funny incident on his Instagram page.

The edited video was first published by the Telegram channel “Bear» January 17, 2025 at 13:20 Moscow time. This channel is already repeatedly was spotted in the dissemination of fake information regarding the war in Ukraine.

Thus, the creators of the viral video took the real video and edited it, adding a screenshot of a non-existent article about the losses of the Ukrainian army. The original video has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine - the weather forecaster actually saw a photograph of a package of spinach suddenly appearing on the screen.

Cover photo: still from viral video. Source: Telegram screenshot

Fake

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