Fact Check: Zelenskyy’s video demanding Americans to send their sons and daughters to Russia-Ukraine war is taken out of context
A video clip shows Ukrainian President Zelenskyy demanding Americans to send their sons and daughters to take part in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
A video clip shows Ukrainian President Zelenskyy demanding Americans to send their sons and daughters to take part in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
Twitter users shared the video clip with the caption: “Zelinsky: Ukraine needs fresh young Americans to help fight on the ground war. "The US will have to send their sons & Daughter... to WAR..." "....and they will be DYING."
Fact check:
The claim is false. The video is a cropped version of a two-hour live-streamed press conference.
While analyzing the viral clip, we observed that there is a watermark on its top right corner. Taking the cue, when searching for the channel, we found that the video is part of a 2-hour long press conference published on the official YouTube channel of The Telegraph. The conversation between the press representatives and the Ukranian President was translated into English live.
Here is another live video published by DW News, where we can see the live transcript of the press conference held by the Ukrainian President.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a press conference marking the first anniversary of Ukraine’s war with Russia. This video was live-streamed on February 24, 2023.
On comparing the viral video and the video published by The Telegraph YouTube channel, we can see the background of both videos is the same.
The video of the conference shows Zelenskyy answering a question by the press correspondents about "how opinion polls in the United States suggest that many Americans believe that the US is giving too much support to Ukraine. What is the message to the Americans?"
He starts his answer by thanking the Americans for their support, then continues to state what will happen if Ukraine loses the war. Zelenskyy says, “if Russia enters the Baltic states which are a part of the NATO alliance, then the US will have to send their sons and daughters to war and they will have to fight. Because it's NATO that we are talking about, they will be dying, god forbid because it’s a horrible thing.”
The Ukraine President is talking about a hypothetical situation where Russia defeats Ukraine and enters the Baltic states but is not demanding the US to send their sons and daughters to fight for Ukraine.
Therefore, the claim is false. He is not demanding the US to send young soldiers to participate in Ukraine’s war with Russia.