The Video Shows Vasily Gumenyuk and Not Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
The video is from a Ukrainian TV show and does not show Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the stage.
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A video of a stage performance, which shows a sexualised-comedy skit, is being shared to claim that the male performer in the clip is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
It comes as Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its fifteenth day, and Zelenskyy has urged people to keep up the resistance to fight for the country.
However, we found out that the clip is from a Ukrainian television show and doesn't show the Ukrainian president on the stage.
The performer is a former comedian turned Ukrainian administrative official Vasily Gumenyuk who was a part of the team 'The Vinnitsa' on the show in 2017.
Catch all the live updates on the Russia-Ukraine tensions here.
CLAIM
The one-minute long video is being shared with a claim which states, “यूक्रेन के महान राष्ट्रपति - वोलोदयमिर ज़लेंस्क्य! अकेले पूरी रशियन फौज का डट कर मुकाबला करते हुए।! जैसा नेता चुनोगे वैसा देश को भुगतना पड़ेगा..यूक्रेन ”.
(Translation: “Great President of Ukraine – Volodymyr Zalenskyy! Fighting the whole Russian army alone. The country will have to suffer because of the leader you chose, Ukraine.”)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We fragmented the video into multiple keyframes using InVID Google Chrome extension and followed this up with a reverse image search, which led us to a video uploaded on YouTube channel 'League of Laughter' on 21 October 2017.
League of Laughter is a Ukrainian show and the YouTube video, which was over four minute long, carried the whole performance. It also mentioned that the team's name was 'Vinnitsa'.
The viral part can be seen at 1:26 minute marks. The video shows Vasily Gumenyuk singing in Ukrainian while cracking up the audience and the judges by his sexualised-comedy skit.
The video also includes Zelenskyy as the host of the show who appears in the initial few seconds of the video and later on at the end. However, he wasn't the President of the country when he was hosting the show.
The 4:25 long video shows Zelenskyy hosting the show in the initial part of the clip.
(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)
On further conducting a keyword search, we found an official website of the Vinnitsa team which displayed the picture of all the members.
The description mentioned the name of the actor and vocal voice of the group to be Vasily Gumenyuk.
The website shows the singer performing “Eyes of the Girl” on the stage. (Highlighted)
(Source: Vinnitsa team website/Screenshot)
WHO IS VASILY GUMENYUK?
Gumenyuk is also a former comedian who now serves as a Ukrainian administrative official. He was appointed as the new head of the Yarmolynets Regional State Administration of the Khmelnytsky region.
We also found reports that mention that he was part of the Vinnitsa team in the comedy show 'League of Laughter'.
The report notes his controversial performance in the “Eyes of the Girl”.
It says, "For several years he played in the KVN team "Vinnitsa Peppers", participated in the humorous show "League of Laughter". He was remembered by many by the number "Eyes of the Girl", in which he joked about the size of the female breast."
Evidently, the clip was shared under false claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was performing on stage when in fact, it was a Ukrainian politician Vasily Gumenyuk.
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