US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been a target of pro-Russian propaganda for years, but a fresh wave of accusations and defamation against him and his country is surging online.
This latest disinformation campaign was fueled by a recent dispute in the Oval Office between Zelenskyy, US President Donald Trump, and vice president JD Vance.
“NewsGuard has seen a significant increase in false claims about Ukraine on US social media in recent weeks, particularly since Donald Trump accused Volodymyr Zelensky of being ungrateful for US military support,” Madeline Roache, managing editor at misinformation watchdog NewsGuard, told DW.
“We’ve seen an avalanche of different disinformation campaigns, influence campaigns, different means trying to portray President Zelenskyy personally as a bad leader, the person that should resign, the person that made everything wrong and that Ukraine is bad, corrupt and should stop the war. And that Ukraine wants to prolong the war rather than stop it,” Roman Osadchuk, an open source and disinformation researcher at the National University of Kyiv, told DW.
Many of these claims align with pro-Russian propaganda narratives about the war in Ukraine, often depicting Zelenskyy as corrupt and profiting from the conflict. From February 18 to February 24, 2025, NewsGuard identified about 27,600 social media posts and articles mentioning “Zelenskyy” alongside terms like “villa,” “yacht,” “winery,” or “mansion” — a 2,524% increase from the previous six-day period, which saw just 1,050 such mentions.
DW Fact check investigated some of the viral claims.
Did Zelenskyy swear at Trump on camera in London?
Claim: “Zelensky burning a very big bridge,” claimed an X user in a post that garnered 4 million views. The post features a video allegedly showing Zelenskyy swearing at Trump while arriving to meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the day after their argument in the Oval Office. The video, originally posted on TikTok suggests Zelenskyy used the words “F*** him” or “F*** Trump” to reporters on his way inside, using a “beep” sound in order to cover the alleged expletive.
DW Fact Check: False.
A comparison of the original footage (also here and here) of Zelenskyy’s arrival at 10 Downing Street with the shared video shows that the Ukrainian President neither mentioned Trump nor used any expletives against him. “Mr. President, how was the trip? How do you feel?” one of the reporters asked. “Okay, thank you so much”, Zelenskyy answered.)
Did Zelensky demand Americans fight in Ukraine?
Claim: President Zelenskyy “demanded” that the US send its “sons and daughters” to fight in Ukraine. This claim appeared in several viral posts on X, accompanied by a short video clip in which Zelenskyy says, “The US will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters to war. And they will have to fight… and they will be dying.”
The video was shared by users such as Alex Jones, an American far-right radio host with a history of spreading conspiracy theories, reaching millions of viewers.
DW Fact check: False
The video clip is from a speech Zelenskyy gave on February 24, 2023. In it, he didn’t call for US troops to fight in Ukraine. Instead, he was discussing a hypothetical scenario in which Ukraine loses the war. Zelenskyy warned that if Russia were to invade NATO’s Baltic states, the US and other NATO allies would be obligated to intervene under Article 5 of NATO’s treaty.
His full quote is: “If Ukraine loses, Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO states, then the US will have to send their sons and daughters exactly in the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters to war.”
Did USAID pay for pro-Ukrainian bots and fakes about Russia?
Claim: Fox News reported that USAID pays $140 million per month to Ukraine’s Psychological and Information Warfare Center to create pro-Ukrainian bots and fake news about Russia.
A manipulated screenshot of an alleged Fox News article dated February 10, 2025 has circulated on social media —including X, Reddit, Telegram, and Facebook . The altered image claims USAID funds Ukraine’s “Psychological and Information Warfare Center” at a rate of $140 million per month. The screenshot features a Fox News journalist’s byline and an alleged statement asserting that the center has been fabricating content and deploying bots since 2022.
DW Fact Check: False
Fox News never published such a story. A spokesperson told Reuters that no such article exists. Additionally, journalist Aubrie Spady’s author page on the Fox News website contains no record of the alleged article. The timestamp in screenshot matches a different report, indicating that the image was repurposed to spread the false claim.
A look at official US data also reveals important details about this claim. A 2024 report (pages 24–27) by the Special Inspector General to the US Congress, which monitored government activity related to Ukraine between 2022 and 2024, explained Congress appropriated $182.75 billion for Ukraine-related efforts. USAID’s share was approximately $39.9 billion, with the bulk allocated to humanitarian aid, governance programs, and public service support.
There was no mention of a $140-million-per-month disbursement to a “Psychological and Information Warfare Center.”
If USAID were spending $140 million per month (roughly $1.68 billion annually) on a single program, that amount would dwarf the agency’s entire budget for operating expenses, inspection, and health programs combined during the same period.
According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense the “psychological operations unit” is part of its Special Operation Forces (SOF). A January 2025 US Department of State fact sheet on US military aid to Ukraine stated that SOF received a total of $42 million, which was allocated for training and other services to develop SOF and Ukraine’s National Guard, conventional forces, non-commissioned officer corps, and combat medical care since 2014.
Did Ukraine stage war scenes to get more money from the US?
Claim: “Ukraine ‘soldiers’ have resorted to faking combat in order to appear ‘war torn’ so the slush fund from the US keeps churning money their way!” claimed an X user, posting a video showing a woman in combat uniform receiving professional makeup and asking in Ukrainian whether she should tighten her helmet. The post went viral, garnering 8.1 million views. The video, along with the claim, was also shared in different languages, including German, Russian and Spanish.
DW Fact Check: False.
The video in the post does not depict a staged war propaganda scene in Ukraine. Instead, it was filmed during the production of the music video for the song “Brothers” by Ukrainian artists Misha Skorpion and Vitsyk.
The video, displaying the username “@vitsikkk2”, was initially posted on the TikTok account of the artist Vitsyk, who is also a paramedic serving in the Ukrainian army. He responded to allegations of producing a fake war movie in another TikTok video: “I want to appeal to those who are trying to raise the numbers on our music video… as if we were making a movie, as if the war in Ukraine was a movie… We are here, we are fighting, we are evacuating, we are winning.”
The woman playing the role of the killed paramedic in the music video is not an actress either. Her name is Mariana Checheliuk, a 25-year-old police officer from Mariupol who was in Russian captivity for more than two years and was liberated in May 2024. She can be clearly identified in the music video, which appeared on YouTube just a week before this article was published.
Similar claims have been common in past Russian propaganda, often accusing Ukraine of faking atrocities. DW’s Fact check has debunked such narratives, including the alleged “living corpses” after the Bucha massacre and claims that air attack victims in Kyiv were “staged.”
