Russian propaganda is actively working to distort the public image of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We have already refuted numerous fakes based on a similar thesis. This time, the narrative The West does not need Ukraine was spread using the fake Twitter account of Elon Musk. Read our debunking to find out what happened.
What happened?
On June 28, 2023, the Telegram channel “UKROPSKIY FRESH” published a screenshot from Elon Musk’s alleged Twitter account, where he comments on his new follower, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“No, I’m not going to give you $6.2 billion like Joe did.”
The next day, on June 29, the news was picked up by several other Telegram channels, including Ukraine.ru, Ukraine. Special operation. Monitoring, Post-ironic political memes, Typical Odesa, and Slivy VSU.
Analysis. Elon Musk’s Twitter account
To begin with, the message was posted on Elon Musk’s Twitter account (Parody), which has the profile @ElonMuskAOC and 296.8k followers.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s true profile is @elonmusk, and has 146.8 million followers.
In other words, the account that posted an appeal to its new follower Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a Parody post in addition to the name.
The history of Parody posts to Twitter accounts
On November 7, 2022, Elon Musk made a statement about the mandatory addition of Parody to an impersonation profile after several cases of imitation of his account.
A few days later, Musk added that the “Parody” indication should be in the profile header and the name.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s account
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has an official Twitter account with only one subscription – he follows his wife Olena Zelenska. He does not follow Elon Musk’s official or parody accounts.
In addition, please note that his name is written in Cyrillic, unlike the fake post, where Volodymyr Zelenskyy is written in Latin.
Moreover, according to the website of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the correct transliteration of the President’s first and last name is Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We did not find an English-language Twitter account among the official profiles of the President of Ukraine.
Thus, we are looking at a fake account of Elon Musk, who posted a comment on a fake post of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
See also
Manipulation. Australians congratulated Russians on Bakhmut liberation. Russian propaganda often uses alleged international support to promote its narratives. This time, a video is circulating online where the Australians allegedly congratulate Russians on Bakhmut liberation. Read in our investigation who is on the video and what it actually captures.
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