Russian propaganda is spreading yet another manipulative video aimed at casting doubt on the President of Ukraine’s visit to a frontline city. In reality, the trip was documented by numerous sources, while the alleged “evidence” of video manipulation turned out to be archival footage from three years ago. As experts from StopFake have established, claims that Zelenskyy’s video from Kupiansk was artificially staged are false.

After Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region on 12 December 2025, Russian propaganda Telegram channels and media outlets began spreading a fake claim that the president’s video address had been filmed in a studio. According to the propagandists, the footage was allegedly recorded against a green screen in Kyiv by specialists from Lucasfilm.

As supposedly “irrefutable proof”, the authors of the fake circulated a video showing the creation of a digital avatar of Zelenskyy, which they claimed could be placed against any background.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Kupiansk on 12 December is an officially confirmed fact. The trip took place against the backdrop of a successful operation by the Ukrainian Defense Forces, which resulted in Russian troops being pushed out of, or encircled in, the northern parts of the city and several surrounding settlements.

Why the “green screen” claims are false:

Claims about “Hollywood special effects” and the use of a green screen are a classic attempt to downplay the successes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kupiansk sector and to create the impression that Ukraine’s leadership is “afraid” to visit the front line. In reality, propagandists once again repurposed old footage from a completely different context in order to spread disinformation.

Images of Odesa following the massive Russian attack on 13 December have been widely reposted on Facebook, X (Twitter), and Telegram. The pictures portray the city as if it were a scene from a Hollywood apocalypse film, featuring dramatic lighting, perfectly arranged visual accents, and a “moonlight spotlight” piercing through the clouds. Users have encouraged others to share these images internationally to demonstrate the horrors of Russian attacks. However, as experts from StopFake have determined, the image – which was also circulated by Russian propaganda outlets – was generated using artificial intelligence (AI).

During the night of 13 December, Odesa and the surrounding region did indeed experience one of the most intense combined attacks since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Russia used kamikaze drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and air-launched ballistic missiles, including Kinzhal missiles. The strikes caused severe disruptions to electricity and water supplies, leaving the city and parts of the region without power for an extended period.

The image presented as an “apocalyptic view of Odesa after a Kinzhal missile strike” is indeed highly emotional and visually striking. However, as experts from StopFake have established, AI-detection tools such as AIorNot and Hive Moderation confirm that it is an AI-generated image.

Additional signs also indicate that the image is fake. The supposedly moonlit scene features unrealistically powerful rays of light penetrating the clouds like a spotlight, creating overly dramatic, cinematic illumination of the water and port cranes. Moreover, on the night of the large-scale attack, the Moon was in a different phase and could not have produced such intense beams of light.

Local media outlets also noted that the city’s architecture was inaccurately depicted in the generated images.

At the same time, authentic photographs documenting the consequences of Russian strikes on the civilian city are widely available online and differ significantly from these fabricated images.

The use of AI-generated fakes to illustrate real tragedies undermines trust in Ukraine on the international stage. When foreign audiences discover that an image is fabricated, they may begin to question not only the fake itself but also the genuine evidence of Russian aggression.

A wave of disinformation related to French farmers’ protests on 11–12 November has been spreading across social media platforms, including Facebook, X, and TikTok. Users have been sharing videos that allegedly show farmers throwing manure at police officers and spraying them with waste from agricultural machinery. The posts are accompanied by emotional captions such as: “The media won’t show you this! Protests in France: police covered in manure!” However, as experts from Demagog have established, these videos were created using generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Details of the manipulation

One such post was published by the page “Legal Services Centre”, which has repeatedly promoted, among other things, anti-Ukrainian narratives. This suggests that such content is often used by disruptive actors to create chaos and undermine trust in law enforcement agencies in EU countries.

Signs of AI generation

A closer examination of the videos – especially when viewed in slow motion – reveals several telltale signs of AI-generated content:

What is actually happening in France

The farmers’ protests are real and are driven by specific grievances and demands. Farmers are protesting against the culling of livestock due to an outbreak of lumpy skin disease and are also opposing the trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur countries in South America. There have indeed been incidents in which manure was dumped outside government buildings, but the videos circulating online that supposedly show police officers being sprayed with waste are fabricated.

The purpose of such manipulations is to radicalize public opinion and create an image of “total chaos” in Europe.

In the pro-Russian segment of the internet, messages are being circulated claiming that Ukrainian servicemen were allegedly rewarded with bonuses from an online casino. The posts are accompanied by an image showing two men in camouflage holding certificates for so-called “free spins”. However, the authors provide no details about the military units or positions of the allegedly “awarded” soldiers, nor do they specify who supposedly presented these “rewards”. The claim is fabricated.

This was reported by StopFake.

Since April 2024, Ukraine has prohibited military personnel from accessing online casinos during martial law. The government has also introduced a number of restrictions related to gambling within the armed forces, including a ban on advertising that uses the symbols of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a prohibition on pawnshops accepting dual-use items such as drones or thermal imaging devices. Therefore, the likelihood that military commanders would officially award online casino bonuses to servicemen is virtually zero.

The photograph circulated alongside the fake story is itself highly questionable. The image displays typical signs of AI generation: the forest background appears unrealistic, with some branches and tree trunks seemingly “floating” in mid-air. The certificates held by the two men also look artificial – the lettering is overly uniform and flat, lacking the perspective distortions, shadows, and reflections normally found on real printed materials.

For comparison, authentic photographs from official events where certificates are presented to military personnel or artists always show natural distortions in the text, variations in the surface texture of the document, and realistic optical effects.

Other inconsistencies are also visible in the image. For example, part of the jacket worn by one of the men abruptly changes camouflage pattern and colour – a typical defect commonly produced by generative AI models.

The artificial nature of the image was noticed even by some users of pro-Russian channels. At the same time, AI-detection tools such as Decopy AI, WasItAI, and Reversely failed to identify the image as fake. As explained by Vadym Miskyi, detection technologies often lag behind the rapid development of generative models, especially when an image has been compressed, edited, or combines real elements with AI-generated additions.

On social media, particularly among Russian- and Georgian-language Facebook accounts, fabricated photographs have been circulating that supposedly show Andriy Yermak in military uniform on the front line. These images are fake and were generated using artificial intelligence (AI).

No Ukrainian or Western media outlet has published verified photographs of Yermak from the battlefield. The spread of the AI-generated images was documented by Georgian fact-checkers from MythDetector.

Between 1 and 4 December, Russian- and Georgian-language Facebook accounts circulated fabricated photographs of former Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak. In one image, he is depicted wearing a military uniform and standing in front of a Ukrainian tank. In another, he appears in an artificially created trench surrounded by several cameras.

In the second image, Andriy Yermak is shown posing in front of a tank while wearing a military vest. The vest appears unnaturally fused with the uniform, as if the two were a single object, making it difficult to distinguish between them.

In addition to visual analysis, fact-checkers from Myth Detector examined the images using an AI-detection tool. The service Hive Moderation classified all of the photographs as AI-generated with a high degree of probability (around 90%).

The circulation of these fabricated photographs appears intended to reinforce Yermak’s statement about his plans to join the military, creating the impression that his supposed “trip to the front line” had already taken place and was merely a staged public-relations exercise.

However, neither Ukrainian nor international media outlets have published any information or photographic evidence indicating that Andriy Yermak has already arrived at the front line to participate in combat operations.