WHAT WAS CLAIMED: A video shows people being made up to look like war-torn Ukrainian soldiers to get more US funding.
OUR VERDICT: False. The clip shows behind-the-scenes footage from the making of a music video.
Misbar investigated the viral video and found the claim to be misleading.
Zelenskyy Saying U.S. Will Send 'Sons and Daughters to War' Is Miscaptioned
Contrary to social media users' viral claim, the video is miscaptioned and does not feature a recent statement from Ukraine's Zelenskyy following a heated meeting with Trump on February 28. [...]
Zelenskyy stated, "The U.S. will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the same way as we are sending [our] sons and daughters to war."
However, Zelenskyy was referring to a hypothetical scenario where Ukraine's defeat could trigger a wider conflict, forcing the U.S. to intervene as a NATO member.
What was claimed
A video shows Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the US will have to send their sons and daughters to fight in Ukraine.
Our verdict
This clip is from 2023 and has been taken out of context. In the full video, Mr Zelenskyy discusses how Ukraine losing the war would risk Russia invading Baltic NATO member states, potentially leading to US involvement on the ground.
A video has surfaced on TikTok of luxury cars pulling up to a private jet with a caption suggesting that it shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy using billions to fund such a lifestyle.
The Verdict False
The video comes from the Instagram account of a private jet provider company and nothing in the original post links the jet and cars to Zelenskyy.
In conclusion, there is no credible evidence that American weapons sent to Ukraine are ending up in Mexico, Syria, Gaza or any location outside of Ukraine, and claims otherwise may be attributed to Russian disinformation campaigns. The United States and Ukrainian governments have attempted strict oversight of their weapons - to mixed results - but any arms trafficking happening in Ukraine appears, as of this writing, to be contained to isolated incidents by criminals.
Donald Trump's criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House led to a surge in misinformation about Ukraine's president, alleging that he swore at Trump, staged the war and misused USAID funds for propaganda.
The claim, shared across Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived) and X (archived) in the form of an image, read:
The President of Ukraine owns a 35 million dollar home in Florida and has $1.2 billion in a overseas bank account. Zelensky owns 15 homes, 3 private planes, and has a monthly income of 11 million dollars. Why is no one questioning where our AID is going?
However, there was no proof of any of the claims shared within the image.
Verdict: False.
The video shows a behind-the-scenes look at a music video for a song called "Brothers" by Misha Scorpion and Vitsik, not Ukrainian soldiers "faking combat."
Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, told us in an email that “Trump’s citation of $350 billion is double what Congress has appropriated.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Congress has passed five spending bills to provide support to Ukraine, totaling about $174.2 billion, as we’ve explained before in fact-checking this and other claims Trump has made about Ukraine and Zelenskky. Each of those five measures passed with bipartisan support. [...]
As for Trump’s claim that Europe provided its aid to Ukraine in the “form of a loan, they get their money back,” that’s an exaggeration. Only a portion of European aid is in the form of loans.
Claim: Former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa wrote a letter to Donald Trump criticizing the U.S. President's decision to suspend the delivery of all U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
Rating: True