Users of social networks that spread pro-Russian rhetoric are distributing a video claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly called on Commander-in-Chief Valerii  Zaluzhnyi to resign from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Allegedly, Zelenskyi said that Zaluzhnyi is involved in politics and elections. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. In fact, such statements are not true, but they are consistent with Russian propaganda narratives that there is a conflict between the president of Ukraine and the commander-in-chief. It has been spreading since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine and was accompanied, in particular, by the appearance of a deepfake with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, where he allegedly called Zelenskyi a traitor and called on the military to march on Kyiv. However, there were no statements by the president in which he blamed Zaluzhnyi, and especially with instructions for his dismissal. There were also no decrees on the dismissal of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the website of the President of Ukraine. On November 30, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podoliak, said on Radio Svoboda (Liberty) that the conflict described by Russian propaganda does not exist.

Propagandists spread such fake news to create distrust in the Ukrainian government and create the impression that the situation is not under control. They say that Ukraine is approaching failure due to internal contradictions among those in power. Detector Media has already repeatedly refuted other fakes about Valerii Zaluzhnyi.