Russian propaganda employs various manipulation techniques to discredit the President of Ukraine. Recently, propagandists fabricated a “comparison” video with the parts taken from other interviews with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olena Zelenska. The video hints that the first lady left Ukraine at the beginning of a full-scale invasion. 

What happened? 

The propagandist telegram channel “Pervyi Kharkovskiy” (First Kharkiv, – editor’s note) shared the video with stitched interviews of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olena Zelenska, in which they seem to be telling two different versions of the same story. 

In the video, each of them says the following: 

…[intelligence services] had been reporting to me: “You have to take your family away.” I told them, “How do you imagine that? I’ll be taking my family away, I’ll be doing something, and people will be just staying here? I can’t do that.”  

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

“I remember I didn’t know what to expect and was worried before reuniting with my husband after the first period of separation that lasted a month or a month and a half, when I had to leave Kyiv, and he remained here. When I was returning, I, frankly, was worried. I didn’t know… I even watched him grow a beard on TV.”

Olena Zelenska 

Authors of the channel commented on this video: 

“Look at the enthusiastic way he lies)). Seems that he truly believes in what he says. [His] puppeteers wonderfully use this skill of his – Zelenskyy’s acting talent allows him to lie to Ukrainians, and still many people feel sympathy for him.” 

The video, shared by propagandists, was initially published by a TikTok user Roman6959. Their post got more than 240 thousand views.

Analysis 

At first, we found the source materials that were used to create the video. The video with Volodymyr Zelenskyy was published on August 16, 2022. The video featuring Olena Zelenska was shared on June 28, 2023. Let’s talk about them.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

The authors of the video took Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s words from his Washington Post interview published on August 16, 2022. In this segment, he’s talking about the fear Ukrainians felt at the precipice of a full-scale Russian invasion. 

“I wasn’t telling them about the Russians’ plot to do something to me and everything the intelligence services had been reporting to me: “You have to take your family away.” I told them, “How do you imagine that? I’ll be taking my family away, I’ll be doing something, and people will be just staying here? I can’t do that.” Our land is the only thing we have; we’ll stay here together. And then what happened, happened.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his office in Kyiv in August of 2022 / Photo: Washington Post

Olena Zelenska 

On July 28, 2023, Olena Zelenska gave an interview to Ukrainian media RBC-Ukraine. Talking about the moments that worried her the most since February 24, 2022, she said, “I remember I didn’t know what to expect and was worried before reuniting with my husband after the first period of separation that lasted a month or a month and a half when I had to leave Kyiv, and he remained here.” 

Olena Zelenska during her interview with RBC-Ukraine / Photo: @olenazelenska_official

Note that Olena Zelenska repeatedly stated that she didn’t leave Ukraine since the full-scale invasion.  

“It was a deliberate decision of mine. I didn’t wish to leave Ukraine. I didn’t wish to be far from my homeland and my husband. And while [sometimes] we don’t see each other for months, I still feel like I’m close. I can support [him] more.” 

Olena Zelenska’s interview with a French channel France 5, June 25, 2022

The President’s family hasn’t shared their whereabouts during the first months of the full-scale invasion due to safety considerations. Propagandists have been using the ambiguity of the situation to defame Volodymyr Zelenskyy multiple times. 

Zelenska herself said she wouldn’t want to reveal where her family spent the first months of the war. “The less I say, the safer I am,” she told The Guardian in the summer of 2022. 

Creator of the video, Roman6959, on the other hand, discredits the Ukrainian President quite often on their TikTok page. 

To conclude: as of today, there’s no interview of Olena Zelenska in which she would name the location where she and her children spent the first months of a full-scale invasion. The secrecy is maintained as a safeguard, so that Russians won’t be able to use the President’s family to pressure him. 

In all interviews, Volodymyr Zelensklyy and Olena Zelenska emphasize that their family didn’t leave Ukraine after February 24, 2022. So, that case is another example of manipulation that aims to discredit the Ukrainian President manufactured by Russian propaganda.

Conclusion: manipulation 

Author: Victoriia Horak

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