On Feb 28, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked to leave the White House after an argument with the US President Trump and US Vice President JD Vance. The next day, in different American cities, people organized demonstrations in support of Ukraine.
After that, the information about JD Vance asking Ukrainians protesting “against the peace deal [with Russia]” to go join Ukraine’s Armed Forces spread online, particularly in pro-Russian and Russian sources. It’s fake. Let’s go through the debunking process.
What happened?
Our chatbot Perevirka received a request to check if US Vice President JD Vance really told Ukrainians “who protested signing the peace deal” to join the Ukrainian army.
“NO ONE agreed to leave safe America and go to war in Ukraine,” the post says.
Since March 2, this post has been shared on X (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Facebook, and Instagram (1, 2, 3). It has also been disseminated through Russian web resources (archive), Odnoklassniki groups (archive), and VKontakte (archive).
Analysis
First, we’ve analyzed the photo attached to these posts. There are signs that the photo was made using AI, e.g., the blurred background, contrasting with a very sharp silhouette of JD Vance.
The news says that the US vice president “approached the protesting Ukrainians.” But there is a wooden table and signs saying “join Ukrainian army” in the picture (that seem to be intentionally prepared).
The verification via AI or Not tool confirmed the picture is AI-generated.
Posts don’t say where exactly “protest demonstration against signing a peace deal” happened, so we’ve analyzed the location next. In the photo, “protesters” and JD Vance are standing in front of the Capitol, so the event had to be happening in Washington, DC.
According to American media, demonstrations in support of Ukraine started in the USA after Zelenskyy, Trump, and JD Vance’s argument in the Oval Office on March 1 in many cities of the country. One of the demonstrations was held in Vermont. There–also on March 1–JD Vance arrived for a vacation at the ski resort Sugarbush. His visit was announced beforehand—back on February 24, Vermont’s governor Phil Scott confirmed it.
Locals went to a peaceful protest and met the motorcade of the US vice president. “Protesters displayed signs that labeled Vance a “national disgrace,” accused him of being a “traitor” and encouraged the family to “go ski in Russia,” writes Shane Galving for New York Post.
Both the New York Post and Fox News reported that, because of the protests, Vance and his family interrupted a planned vacation at the ski resort and left for an unknown location.
So, the information that Ukrainians “protested against the peace deal” and refused to join the AFU when JD Vance told them to is fake. Vance was in Vermont back then, not in Washington, D.C., and didn’t talk to protesters that were meeting him. The picture used as “evidence” in posts is AI-generated.
Protests in the USA actually came up not because Ukrainians “don’t want peace,” but, partially, because both Donald Trump and JD Vance dismissed the idea that security guarantees should come with any sort of agreement with Russia.
Conclusion: Fake
Author: Olha Yakovleva
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