Video fake: ‘Ukrainian’ sets fire to California DNA center over Nazism
The Kremlin media and z-Telegram channels of famous Russian propagandists are spreading a news report allegedly authored by the Al Jazeera television company. In the video, alleged Ukrainian refugee Oleksiy Shynkarenko burned down the 23andMe DNA laboratory in the United States after founding out that he is not 100% Ukrainian, but has only eight percent Ukrainian genes.
This is a fake. There is no such video on the official website of the Al Jazeera agency and on its social networks. The video itself is a fake and a compilation of some footage and pictures that can be found freely available on the Internet.
Thus, refugee Oleksiy Shynkarenko, who allegedly burned down the laboratory due to a DNA test, does not actually exist.
The man who is posing as a Ukrainian is Gerry Carroll, a politician from the Northern Ireland. Russian propaganda employees took the photo from The Irish Times to create the fake video. The original photo was taken in Dublin in March 2020.
The footage from the 23andMe lab for the fake video was taken from the medical facility's official YouTube channel, stock photos, and even Wikipedia.
Part of the video with footage showing sampling and DNA analysis was taken from the SmarterEveryDay channel, where a blogger tells about DNA testing and how the 23andMe lab works.
The footage, where 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki allegedly talks about an incident created by Russian propaganda, has nothing to do with Ukraine. They are taken from her interview with Bloomberg journalist Ed Ludlow about the company's partnership with Amazon. The video itself was released almost two months ago, on July 19, 2023.
The footage showing the alleged burning of the laboratory is a video that captured a crime committed in the lobby of the Lake County Jail in Indiana. This video was published on June 8, 2023.
Earlier, Russian propaganda spread information about the American city of Odesa that was allegedly renamed because of the war in Ukraine.
Andriy Olenin