Deepfake from Turkey: Yermak, Syrskyi 'discuss bribing' Senator Graham to secure US weapons

Russian media, Telegram channels, and bots on X are circulating a video allegedly obtained by the Turkish outlet Aydinlink. The clip supposedly shows Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi and Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak discussing U.S. weapons supplies. In the video, the two men appear to "complain" about U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who allegedly takes "kickbacks" from Ukraine but supposedly cannot secure larger volumes of weapons. The claim implies that this is preventing Ukrainian officials from "profiting more" from arms deliveries.

These claims are false. The video is a deepfake, generated using artificial intelligence. The voices are in Russian, sound nothing like the real officials, and in the case of the man resembling Yermak, the upper part of his face does not move at all.

The AI verification service DeepFack-o-meter also confirms this. Its bots, trained on hundreds of thousands of fake video, audio, and photo materials, analyze generated audio, facial expressions, and pixel artifacts. Their analysis indicates with 89.9% to 99.9% probability that the video is a deepfake.

Part of the footage featuring Syrskyi was taken from real reports delivered by the commander a year ago, but propagandists replaced the original audio with a fabricated track.

The source of this fake, Aydinlik, is a pro-Russian propaganda outlet based in Turkey. The site has repeatedly published anti-Ukrainian disinformation aligned with Russian narratives — for instance, claiming that Kyiv was involved in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in Moscow and that Ukraine "has ties" to the terrorist group ISIS.

Aydinlik frequently republishes anti-Ukrainian statements from former Russian President and current Security Council Deputy Chair Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, and other Kremlin officials. The outlet is owned by Dogu Perincek, who is known to have close ties to Russian ultranationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin. Perincek's son, Mehmet, even boasted about his friendship with Dugin's daughter, Darya Duginа.

This fake video is part of a broader campaign to push Russian narratives about alleged corruption in the Ukrainian military and to undermine trust in Ukraine's leadership amid Western security assistance.

Earlier, Russian propaganda also spread a false claim that Ukraine was "mobilizing" men with mental disorder.

Andriy Olenin