DISINFO: President Zelenskyy has left Kyiv
SUMMARY
Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left Kyiv for the western city of Lviv, the President of Russia’s Duma Viacheslav Volodin reported, quoting members of Ukraine’s Supreme Rada. Zelenskyy wasn’t in the capital on 25 February. The videos posted on social media were pre-recorded.
RESPONSE
This disinformation claim was debunked hours later by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when he posted a video to his social media accounts showing that he remained in downtown Kyiv, in the surroundings of the Rada. There is no evidence to back the claim that this and other videos were pre-recorded, and metadata suggests otherwise.
This is part of pro-Kremlin’s war propaganda efforts, aiming to demoralise Ukrainians and convince them to stop resisting Russia’s invasion.
As a response to Russia’s aggression, the European Union has further imposed comprehensive sanctions on Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and on some economic sectors.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that NATO floods Ukraine with modern weapons to push Kyiv for a military solution in Donbas, that Ukraine is a colony with a puppet regime, that Ukraine has no sustainable statehood, or that chemical weapons “provocations” are being prepared by the Ukrainian military.