On February 25-26th, 2023, the following quote by Volodymyr Zelensky was published on behalf of the Russian-language service of the BBC in Russian propaganda media (mk.ru, mriya.news, news-kiev.ru and Russian-language Facebook accounts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5): In the summer, I will personally feed the fish off the coast of Crimea.
The screenshot that has the visual of the BBC article is fabricated and cannot be found on any of their platforms. “Myth Detector” contacted the Russian-language service of the BBC. In the correspondence, it was confirmed that the screenshot is fake. The mentioned quote by Volodymyr Zelensky cannot be found in other open sources either.
“Myth Detector” contacted the Russian-language service of the BBC. According to the media, they have nothing to do with the shared screenshot, and it is fake.
As for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s latest statement regarding Crimea, at a press conference on February 24th, one year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said, that Ukraine is preparing for the de-occupation of Crimea, although the quote spread in Russian media and social networks does not belong to him.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “Everyone wants to return their territories… I can tell you only one thing about specific times and steps – everything depends only on us. We are preparing for military steps; we are morally ready. We prepare technically – with weapons, reinforcements, formation of brigades, we send people to training. We have to be ready and then there will be de-occupation steps.”
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