Pro-Kremlin Deepfakes Fake Ukrainian Lawmakers Urging Surrender
Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels are spreading AI-generated deepfake videos of two Ukrainian lawmakers who appear to lament the war and call for peace, according to research firm NewsGuard, as reported by the-decoder.com.
The videos feature Andriy Levus, former deputy head of the Ukrainian Security Service, and Ivan Yunakov, a lawmaker from President Zelenskyy’s party. In the fabricated clips, Levus appears to call for peace talks while Yunakov appears to mourn the loss of territory. Both videos contain telltale AI artifacts, including unnatural blinking, flat voices and stiff facial expressions, the-decoder.com reported.
The videos accumulated 130,000 views over two weeks, according to the report, illustrating how generative AI tools continue to be used to amplify propaganda in the war. The-decoder.com noted a similar deepfake surfaced in 2022 that made Zelenskyy appear to call for surrender, though that earlier video was technically crude compared with current fakes. The outlet said many similar deepfakes likely go undetected.
The-decoder.com observed that such videos serve their propaganda purpose regardless of whether they are eventually debunked. If a fake goes unchallenged, its message spreads without correction. If it is exposed, the outlet noted, the episode still erodes public trust in information and contributes to broader damage to democratic discourse.
The report did not specify further details on the video creation methods or the scale of distribution beyond the Telegram channels identified by NewsGuard.
Based on reporting by the-decoder.com.
