In May 2025, the Internet was circulated by a Ukrainian-language animated video in which a grandfather explains to his grandson: Kyiv will not lose anything by concluding an agreement on mineral resources with Washington. We checked whether this video was actually prepared at the request of the Ukrainian authorities.

The cartoon characters are a boy and his grandfather. The following dialogue takes place between them:
- Grandfather, why does grandma say that our country was sold to America and now we are slaves?
- Don't believe her, Tarasik! Ukraine is a very rich country. We have many mineral resources, we have factories, fertile land, nuclear power plants, a pipeline through which gas passes through our entire country from east to west and brings us a lot of money. We are very rich, they are not. That's why we want to share it with them. Let them use our wealth! And tell your grandmother not to listen to the Muscovites who want to take everything away from us. And if she says that again...
- And if she says that again, (both in unison) we need to inform the SBU!

The characters are apparently discussing what was signed on April 30, 2025 agreement, under which Washington gained access to part of Ukrainian natural resources. The deal was received ambiguously in society - for example, deputy Anna Skorokhod during stream On May 20, she stated that it was more important for her to visit the soldiers at the front, and not to give up the country’s interests in the vote on ratification of the treaty in the Verkhovna Rada. And she mentioned that same cartoon, which she called a masterpiece of idiocy and manipulation of people. The broadcast of the conversation, conducted in Russian, received 112,000 views.

The video was shared by users "Peekaboo"(167,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), as well as many Telegram channels - in particular, "Ukraine.ru"(207,000), "Oleg Tsarev" (103,000), "Tsargrad-TV"(81,000), "Nearestovich"(40,000) and Rogandar News (36,000).

Source: Telegram

Judging by the format of the video with an appeal to contact the Security Service of Ukraine, it is assumed that it was prepared and distributed by the SBU. Indeed, the department from time to time conducts information campaigns calling on citizens to cooperate. Thus, in January 2025, the SBU, together with the National Police of Ukraine, launched the “FSB officers slept“, within the framework of which the departments encouraged young people to talk about recruitment attempts by the Russian special services and thereby prevent arson, sabotage and terrorist attacks. The campaign was accompanied by the publication of a propaganda video in everyone social networks SBU, as well as on its website.

However, “Verified” did not find a cartoon about a boy, his grandfather and a deal with the United States either on the resources of the intelligence service or in other authoritative Ukrainian sources. There are noticeable differences with other videos of the department: genre (cartoon instead of a real video), artistic plot, a call not found in other videos to hand over relatives to the SBU for seditious statements. In addition, propaganda videos from the SBU, as a rule, end with a splash screen with the logo departments or frame with his contacts. This cartoon contains neither one nor the other. The little hero’s grandfather talks about the big money that gas transit from Russia to Europe through Ukraine brings. However, on January 1, 2025, he stopped after the expiration of the contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz, renew it in some form Kyiv, judging by the statements of officials, doesn't plan. Therefore, the grandfather’s statement and the demonstrated pipeline diagram were already out of date for several months at the time of the cartoon’s release.

The voices in the cartoon sound unnatural. “Verified” analyzed his audio track using a service to identify AI content DeepFake-o-meter, which was developed by researchers from the University at Buffalo. The results of the analysis show that the characters' voices are highly likely to be generated by a neural network. In addition, in the cartoon, the grandfather addresses his grandson as “Tarasco,” although it would be correct to use the form “Tarasik"

The animation itself was apparently also created using AI. There are similar ones on the Internet personnel, which were definitely generated and could serve as a prototype for the heroes of the video.

There were also some blunders typical for such videos. Thus, on the map, instead of the Ukrainian-language name of Belarus (“Bіlorus”), “BіlorusK” is written. And on the grandmother’s left hand, which is shown towards the end of the video, six fingers are visible at once.

Much more than real SBU videos, the video resembles spreading in March 2025, a propaganda cartoon allegedly produced by the secret service. In it, Ukrainian children are called upon to inform on people listening to Russian-language songs, even on relatives. That cartoon turned out to be a fake, launched through pro-Kremlin Telegram channels.

According to the TGStat service, an animated video about the deal with the United States first appeared in the Russian-language segment of Telegram. The earliest publication containing this video, which was discovered by Verified, appeared on a pro-Russian channel Salo Yronili May 16 at 08:29 Moscow time.

Thus, the viral video, posing as a propaganda video from the Ukrainian authorities, is a fake created with the help of AI.

Cover photo: social networks