A deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seemingly generated using artificial intelligence, was published on the website of a Ukrainian news publication called Ukraine 24 on Wednesday, 16 March. The video was then shared on social media platforms.
In the video, President Zelenskyy could be heard asking Ukrainian troops to lay down their arms. While the video was lip-synced, the President's head seemed out of place.
The video has since been debunked and removed from social media platforms. The Ukrainian government had, on 2 March, warned people that Russia might be making use of deepfake technology to falsely claim that Zelenskyy had surrendered in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
A deepfake uses machine learning technology to manipulate audio and video recordings and show people doing or saying things that they never did or said. They are made to appear authentic but they really are not.
While the deepfake in question was not of great quality, it still adds to the already buzzing disinformation campaign about the ongoing war.
Ukraine 24 Website Hacked
The video was first posted on Segodnya, a Russian-language Ukrainian tabloid, according to Daily Dot. The video was then aired during a live television broadcast from Ukraine 24 and was subsequently published on the channel's website.
Ukraine 24, in a statement, clarified that their TV channel and website were hacked by "enemy hackers". "No one is going to give up. Especially, in the circumstances when the Russian army suffers losses in battles with the Ukrainian army," the statement added.
Segodnya, too, put out a statement on Instagram and accused “enemy hackers” for the publishing the deepfake on their website.
Zelenskyy Posts Clarification on Instagram
Zelenskyy was swift to respond to the deepfake as he posted a video of himself on his Telegram channel and Instagram handle dismissing the statements made in the deepfake video.
Zelenskyy called it a childish provocation and said, "I can offer to lay down arms only to the militaries of the Russian Federation and to return home."
Later on, Meta’s head of security and policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said that the company was identifying and removing the deepfakes as and when it showed up on their platform.
Twitter, too, decided to remove the posts with the deepfake video but said that it will allow the video in instances where people stated that it was a fake, according to a statement to NPR.
Misinformation and disinformation around the ongoing war has grown substantially since the Russian invasion began in late February and The Quint's WebQoof team has debunked several of those claims.
The ongoing war has claimed thousands of lives, including those of civilians, while millions have fled the country.
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