On May 22, 2023, a Facebook user published a video of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, saying the following: “I just want to first congratulate Prigozhin on a terrific win last night in Ukraine, in what was a very competitive battle.” According to the author of the post, Blinken’s statement is related to the fall of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
The video featuring Antony Blinken is fabricated; most probably by using the Deepfake technology. The original video was shot in November 2022, and Blinken congratulates the US team on a successful World Cup match.
The disseminated post includes an altered video of Antony Blinken. In fact, Antony Blinken’s video has nothing to do with the recent active fighting in Bakhmut and was filmed a few months prior, on November 30, 2022. Antony Blinken participated in the meetings of foreign ministers of NATO countries in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, where the main topic of discussion was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The mentioned video was taken on the last day of the meetings. Blinken, in the introduction of his speech, congratulated the United States football team on its victory over the Iranian team at the World Football Championship.
Antony Blinken: “Before I speak to what we’ve been doing here for the last couple of days, I just want to first congratulate Team USA on a terrific win last night at the World Cup in what was a very competitive match. I also want to salute the performance of the Iranian team, which played with so much heart during this tournament.”
In addition to the fact that in Blinken’s quote, “Team USA” is replaced by “Prigozhin”, the word “Ukraine” is added to it, and the word “match” is changed, instead of which we hear the word “battle”.
Disinformation, as if US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognized Russia’s military superiority over Ukraine, was disseminated in the past as well. See more:
About the Source
Facebook account Nero Nero often publishes posts of anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian content. The user has also amplified disinformation a number of times.
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