DISINFO: Zelensky bought Hitler's ceremonial limousine
SUMMARY
The Seattle Tribune reported that that Volodymyr Zelensky acquired, for an unknown sum that could be up to $15 million, a limousine specially designed for the Third Reich’s Führer.
In early October, the car was seen in the centre of Kyiv, Zelensky drove up to it at the presidential administration building on Bankova Street, 11. This happened shortly after his return from the United States. During the trip, Zelensky presented his "victory plan" to Biden. After his visit, the United States announced an aid package for Ukraine worth $8 billion.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin defamatory narrative against Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, supporting the disinformation trope of Nazi Ukraine.
The Seattle Tribune website, from where the narrative comes, is filled with other news articles. However, these articles appear to rely heavily on AI-generated content culled from other local news sites.
BBC Verify's Shayan Sardarizadeh reported that no such news outlet based in Seattle exists and that the website was only set up in the past week "specifically to post this fake story."
As Forbes analyses, this story is easily debunkable by respectable media, but that is part of the point. Fact-checking this sensational news will attract a large audience and associate the name of the Ukrainian president with Hitler at a time when there is a lot of frustration in the US due to the announced destruction from Hurricane Helen. This will contrast with the $8 billion support package to Ukraine.
This kind of disinformation plays on the expected emotional reaction in the audience by using the key word "Hitler" in the headline. It is a classic Kremlin tactic to try provoke an emotional reaction be manipulating with scandalous text. See our analysis of this tactic in this article "Lighting fire to emotions with lies".
Read also related stories such as: Zelenskyy bought Goebbels’ villa to show his commitment to Bandera or Zelensky's wife bought a new Bugatti Tourbillon being first in the world, or French studio releases animation series denouncing Zelenskyy's blood thirst, or Zelensky uses the same Nazi symbols as Hitler, or Zelenskyy's regime is based on Nazism and hatred towards Russians.