On June 17, the Facebook account “Analytical Platform” and Russian-language users published posts (1, 2, 3, 4.) claiming that during the football match between Romania and Ukraine on June 17, Romanian fans displayed the flag of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, and at one point they chanted the name of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Along with the posts, the users also publish photo-video materials showing the occurrence.
The same information was shared by the Russian service of “Voice of America” and Eurasia Today. The report was also actively spread in the Russian media (1, 2, 3, 4,), including RT, Газета.Ru and News-Front.
The claim that Romanian fans displayed The flag of the so-called Donetsk Republic and chanted Putin’s name is false. Actually, the disseminated photo and video materials are altered.
On June 17, 2024, at the “Allianz Arena” in Munich, within the framework of the European Football Championship, a group stage match was held between the national teams of Romania and Ukraine, which ended with the victory of the Romanians with a score of 3:0. During the meeting, the abundance of Romanian fans and their activity on the stands was noticeable. They had quite a lot of paraphernalia with them, including flags, however, despite the widespread claims, the flag of the co-called Donetsk Republic was not visible. The shot, in which, according to the Russian media and Facebook accounts, the mentioned flag is seen, is cut from the 31:56 minute of the match. “Myth Detector” verified the recording of the broadcast, where no such flag can be observed.
The video, in which Romanian fans seem to be chanting Putin’s name, was actively spread on various social networks, in addition to the Russian media. It should be noted that identical information was spread by the British tabloid Mirror. The “Strategic Communications and Information Security Center” of Ukraine, which is a government body responsible for combating disinformation coming from Russia, commented on the circulated video. According to them, the distributed video is fake and the sound is altered in it. According to them, the sound is taken from the famous Ukrainian shout “Putin khu*lo”, the second word is cut off and only the word “Putin” is left. Based on the statement of the center, similar information is spread by a number of Romanian publications. They were not able to back up their arguments using lip-reading because the fans are seen from behind in the shot, but they conclude that the fans’ movements, shouts, and rhythms do not match at all.
The sound is most likely taken from a 2021 video of Ukrainian fans attending a Ukraine-Austria match chanting Putin Khuylo.
The authenticity of the chanting of “Putin” by the Romanian fans is doubted by the fact that at the beginning of the game, they showed great respect for Ukraine. German BILD writes that at the beginning of the match, about 40,000 Romanian fans chanted “Ukraine” for some time as a sign of respect and solidarity.
Update 20.06.2024: The fabricated video of Romanian fans chanting Putin’s name was also verified by the fact-checking organization Open. They found that at the moment when the video is taken, the inscription about the goal is visible on the screen. As Open points out, the sound in the video is altered, and when a goal is scored in the game, it’s unbelievable that the Romanians would chant Putin’s name at that moment. In addition, Open spoke to a fan at the game where the video was shot, who confirmed that no such thing took place.
Archive links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
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