Video fake: Ukraine’s losses in war exceed one million persons

Leading Russian media outlets and z-Telegram channels are distributing a video from the United News telethon. In the video, information from the "Ministry of Defense" appeared on a news ticker that since February 24, 2022, Ukraine has allegedly lost more than 1.1 million soldiers killed and missing.

This is a fake. There has never been any such "news" on the official website of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. The telethon did not report such information during live broadcast either.

The propagandists replaced the news ticker during the broadcast on November 23, 2023, when a Suspilne journalist interviewed a sniper platoon commander from the Separate Presidential Brigade, with the call sign "Ghost".

There are at least six visual coincidences in the original and edited videos, which proves that Russian propaganda has faked this video. In particular, the same journalist wearing glasses and a red jacket, a soldier wearing a balaclava and a skull chevron, a sign language interpreter with black hair, a QR code referring to fundraising for the AFU, and the titles in the design of the Suspilne channel with the interview's theme "Situation on the Front".

During the journalist's five-minute conversation with the military, the news ticker did not display a single report that more than one million soldiers of the Ukrainian army had been killed. Instead, there were reports on Russian losses for the day, the situation on the contact line, a list of settlements shelled by the enemy with artillery, aircraft and MLRS, and the news about the death of a Ukrainian driver in a queue at the Polish-Ukrainian border.

This is not the first time that Russian propaganda has faked stories from the United News telethon. For example, Russian agitation propaganda created a fake video where President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky allegedly ordered the Ukrainian military to leave Avdiivka. The propagandists also forged stories that fallen Ukrainian soldiers would be allegedly buried in biodegradable pods and Russian POWs were being held in concentration camps.

At the same time, the Russian army is suffering heavy losses. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as of November 27, 2023, the Russian army lost about 325,580 soldier, including 750 people on November 26.

Earlier, Russian propagandists faked a publication by Ukrainska Pravda.

Andriy Olenin