Russian sources, citing a certain “news story”, are spreading information that the Colombian government is planning to restrict the showing of TikTok videos from Ukraine due to the “romanticization of war” and “propaganda of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”. Thus, the video story says that TikTok videos from Ukraine allegedly create a distorted romanticized perception of war among Colombian youth, which allegedly encourages them to join the International Legion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces en masse.

However, this information is fake, writes the StopFake project. The video clip that the Russians are distributing is fabricated. The attackers used the corporate style and logo of the Colombian publication City Noticias TV to create the fake, but did not take into account that the publication publishes content not in English, but exclusively in Spanish. There is no such clip on the media’s website or social networks. There is also no similar news on the Colombian websites of the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications and the Ministry of National Defense, as well as on any authoritative Spanish-language or English-language media.

Finally, the “facts” in the video contradict reality and common sense. For example, the story claims that the average age of Colombians joining the Ukrainian army has dropped from 22 to 18 due to the influence of TikTok. However, this is highly unlikely, since 18 is the minimum age to join the International Legion.

On the contrary, most Colombians in the Ukrainian army are veterans with combat experience – this was written about by a number of publications that studied the motivations of Colombian citizens to join the International Legion. Accordingly, such experienced fighters are encouraged to join the war with Russia not by a romanticized perception of the war, but by decent financial compensation.

Previously, we recorded a number of Russian propaganda leaks on the topic of Colombian citizens in the ranks of the International Legion. For example, we analyzed the fake that the body of the fallen Colombian fighter Michael Ramirezi Fino from the International Legion was allegedly returned to his family “without internal organs”.