Russia spreading fake videos allegedly from global media to discredit Ukrainian refugees

Propagandists have forged videos supposedly from BBC, Euronews and Human Rights Watch

Russian Telegram channels are sharing a video styled as a Euronews news report about a tragedy at a Swiss ski resort. A fire at a bar in the Crans-Montana resort killed 40 people. The video claims that the main suspect is supposedly a Ukrainian refugee named Oleh K., who allegedly started the fire out of jealousy.

This is fake news. Propagandists used the original Euronews footage about the tragedy and added fabricated scenes using video editing software. The real Euronews video is 1 minute 16 seconds long, while the fake one is 15 seconds longer. The fake clips do not appear in the genuine video.

According to the Swiss prosecutor's office, the most likely cause of the fire was Bengal flares that ignited the building's roof. Currently, two bar managers are in custody as the main suspects, accused of violating safety regulations that led to the fire.

In addition, Russians are spreading a video on social networks with the logo of the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch. It claims that during the New Year holidays Ukrainian refugees allegedly committed as many crimes in Europe as migrants from the Middle East.

This is fake. There is no such video on the HRW website or on the organization's social media accounts. Since the beginning of the year, Human Rights Watch has published only two videos, dedicated to protests in Iran and British legislation.

Russian bots are also spreading videos on X and Telegram with the logo of the BBC. They claim that Ukrainian refugees have allegedly begun to disappear en masse in Europe and are becoming victims of human trafficking.

This is fake news. Russians fabricated the video using YouTube Shorts. The falsified clip is dated January 5, but no such video exists on the official BBC YouTube channel.

These Russian fakes are aimed at discrediting Ukrainians in Europe in the eyes of Western audiences, to negatively influence perceptions and fuel anti-Ukrainian sentiment in EU countries.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Russian propaganda previously spread fakes about Zelensky's visit to Kupiansk.

Andriy Olenin