A promotional video appearing to show Ukrainian soldiers being recruited to fight in Israel was exposed as a Russian fabrication, according to an investigation by the outlet Ukrinform published Nov. 4.
The video features a uniformed soldier of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) calling on Ukrainian fighters to join the IDF. The man claims to be a Ukrainian soldier who served on the front line and joined the IDF for higher pay and Israeli citizenship.
Ukrinform journalists discovered the original video on TikTok and found that it was made by an Israeli blogger with no connection to Ukraine. In the original version, the speaker does not mention Ukraine at all.
The audio and text of the video were doctored to create the fake recruitment post.
Ukrinform previously reported on propaganda images that claimed to show Russian tanks in Israel. These also turned out to be fake.
Israel's invasion of Gaza has opened a new front for Russia's disinformation wars. Russia has tried to exploit the conflict to its own ends, implicating Ukraine in fake reports and falsely claiming that Kyiv played a role in the antisemitic riots in Dagestan on Oct. 29.
A study published Oct. 25 found that the circulation of deepfake propaganda videos amid Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine has eroded audience's overall trust in coverage of the war.
David Kirichenko
