Russian propaganda spreads fake about cutting off aid to Ukraine after Trump's victory

After the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, Russian propaganda resorted to manipulations in the wake of this result. In particular, on the morning of November 7, a video emerged on Z-Telegram channels that had been allegedly published on the Instagram Stories of the American TV Channel CNN. The video, supposedly filmed in Times Square in New York City, features a billboard with the words “Congratulations to Donald Trump for winning the U.S. presidential election and congratulations to hundreds millions of American citizens on the fact that billions of their dollars will now not be spent to help Ukraine.”

This is a fake. First, this video was not published in Stories on CNN's official Instagram account. Secondly, the fact that the propagandists have faked it is indicated by the absence of a TV channel-style “story” design. All authentic Stories from CNN have the same format and include links to the official CNN website, where users can access the full content.

After analyzing the propagandists' videos, we also managed to find out where exactly the billboard with the alleged inscription about Ukraine is located. It is a billboard above the Grand Slam souvenir shop. Using an online camera on the building opposite the shop, we verified that this billboard was not broadcasting the video circulated by the Russians.

The ad for the Grand Slam store also differs from the one in the fake video. It is interesting that it is simultaneously broadcast on the top and bottom screens, not just on the bottom, as in the fake propaganda video.

In addition, the video fake shows a billboard with the inscription “Cancer isn’t the star of my story,” which depicts the founder and CEO of MaleRoom media company Mindy Kaplan. She, in collaboration with OUTFRONT Media and the non-profit organization Imerman Angels, launched the Million Mammograms challenge on October 1 to mark World Breast Cancer Month.

Billboards supporting this initiative have indeed been in Times Square since early October. However, at present they are not in the above-mentioned place. So, the propagandists fabricated an old video, adding footage with an anti-Ukrainian context.

Such fakes are aimed at discrediting Ukraine in the eyes of foreign citizens and promoting the Russian narrative that Americans are supposedly tired of the war in Ukraine and no longer want to help our country. As claimed, this will be facilitated by the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, who may resort to cutting off aid to Ukraine.

Earlier, Ukrinform refuted faked videos spread by Russian propaganda on behalf of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and Reporters Without Borders.

Dmytro Badrak