On the Internet, certain rumors come back regularly. Latest, the flight of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from his country. On TikTok, a video shares the news: “The end of the deception, Zelensky arrested or liquidated. Thanks to the Russian army”. In the subtitle, the video adds that the head of state at war is currently on the run. However, the video relays a subject broadcast on France 24 which absolutely does not indicate the same message.
More broadly, since the start of the war in Ukraine, many rumors have been circulating around the fact that the president is secretly leaving his country… leaving the fighting behind him. 20 minutes come back to this false information.
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On TikTok, the video relayed by the Internet user publishes a subject broadcast by the television channel France 24. We understand thanks to the banner located on the screen that the subject concerns the Russian military invasion in Ukraine. In the subtitle, we can also read: “The mayor of Kyiv says that the city is in a ‘defensive phase’”.
However, these remarks of the aedile are not so recent. According to a Reuters dispatch, published on February 25, 2022, the mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko said that the capital of Ukraine had entered a “defensive phase” following the offensive of the Russian army in the country. As evidenced by the date of the dispatch and its content, the news is not recent and the video lacks context.
An old video
Incidentally, the on-screen journalist – Clovis Casali – was the on-site reporter for the channel just before the start of the war in Ukraine. The subject also dates from February 25, 2022 when the reporter returned to the air on the fighting in kyiv, the day after the outbreak of a massive attack by Russia against Ukraine. “Exchanges of fire and explosions were heard in particular in the Obolon district and deaf detonations from the center of the city”, specifies the description. But in no case does the journalist announce that the Ukrainian president is on the run.
On social networks, rumors of the Ukrainian president’s flight are frequent. At the end of February 2022 – a few days after the start of the invasion – the first allegations had been put forward, in particular from the chairman of the State Duma [la chambre basse du parlement russe] Vyacheslav Volodin. “Zelensky left kyiv in a hurry. He was not in the Ukrainian capital yesterday. Together with his entourage, he took refuge in the city of Lviv, where he was lodged with his assistants. All the videos he posted on social networks are pre-recorded, ”said the political representative on his Telegram account. In France and abroad, this information had been widely taken up.
Zelensky in front of a green screen?
But the information had been denied by Zelensky the following days. ” We are here. We are in Kyiv. We defend Ukraine,” he posted on Instagram along with several advisers. And subsequently, the Ukrainian president had repeatedly posted videos of him in kyiv in order to prove his presence.
Several months later, last October, new similar allegations had been broadcast on social networks. Internet users believed that Volodymyr Zelensky recorded videos in front of a green screen, in a studio. “So everything is a comedy and it’s a safe bet that he was evacuated. The scam continues “, lambasted a user. But these images were taken out of context. They had been shot in June during a forum where the Ukrainian president appeared in the form of a hologram.