Deepfake about Zelensky's dancing

For the faint-hearted, you’d better step away from your screen. This post might just tip your equilibrium. And if you’re someone with at least a bit of critical thinking, don’t even bother reading this text… because you’ll probably say that it’s clearly a video montage, so it’s obvious there’s nothing to refute. But, if there’s someone still around to listen, then let’s dive into the depths of this fake.

Well, there’s this video making the rounds on social media allegedly featuring none other than the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, decked out in attire deemed “feminine” in Slavic culture, performing some vigorous oriental dance moves. 

The russian segment of the webosphere is having a field day, claiming it’s from some corporate event in Moscow this year. Bulgarian trash sites eagerly jumped on the bandwagon, mocking the spectacle: “This THING is at war with russia and wants to defeat it. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is humping like a whore on a pole.”

Regrettably, even some Ukrainians fell for it. Their personal disdain for Zelenskyy made them easy targets. But, the reposts no longer mention the corporate party, but simply say: “when a person is in his right place...” 

The rest was made up by users in the comments: some people assume that the video was made before the war (because he was obviously much younger then), others hopefully ask, “so, maybe it’s a fake after all…”

We’re here to set the record straight: it is indeed a fake. It’s what they call a deepfake — probably cooked up by artificial intelligence. 

However, it’s not that deep. You can detect the video montage created by the fake makers with the naked eye because it features someone else’s head, not President Zelenskyy’s. 

We tracked down the original video clip on the page of a russian user - vusaaal. It was first posted on October 16, 2020, and resurfaced again last year. Most of vusaaal’s content revolves around dancing.

In the caption, the author asks, “Dancing, my dancing; what do you think? Modern or oriental?” Well, the video certainly attracted the attention of Arabic-speaking folks. Most of the comments express anger: “Shame on those who watch this. If they’d stoned him, it would’ve been better.” Meanwhile, others simply laugh.

It seems that this video likely captures russians celebrating the anniversary of some unknown lady in some hotel. The russian text displayed on the screen behind the dancer reads, “Happy Anniversary, Rodnaya [dear one]! Be happy!”

Prepared by Serhiy Odarenko.