On July 7, a Georgian-language Facebook page published a video depicting the alleged dance of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the post, the author notes that “Ukraine was fed” when a person like Zelenskyy was elected president. In the video, a man dressed in a skin-colored suit, who looks like Zelenskyy, performs a belly dance.
The same video was published on the website bitchute.com on July 3.
The video disseminated on social media is altered. In fact, instead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the footage shows an Argentinian dancer Pablo Acosta.
When searching for a frame of the video with photo search tools, we found out that the person dancing in the video is not President Zelenskyy but an Argentinian dancer Pablo Acosta. Acosta posted the video on his Instagram account on May 26, 2023. When watching the video, it becomes clear that the footage in the version circulated on social networks is sped up and repeated. According to information posted in his Instagram profile, Pablo Acosta is a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer, and also organizes the Tucuman Bellydance Fest and Mega Dancing Festivals.
Although Volodymyr Zelenskyy became the winner of the television program “Dancing with the Stars” in 2006, and he has a great interest in dancing, there is no outward similarity between him and the Argentinian dancer.
The Turkish fact-checking platform teyit.org also verified the video shared on social media.
The altered video was distributed on various social networks. For example, one version of the video was shared on the social network Tiktok on June 29 with the description “Це перегама”, “Как старается” (“It’s a victory”, “How he’s trying”) and a month later, as of July 26, it has approximately 193,000 views. In a video circulating on Tiktok, Zelenskyy’s dance is watched by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. It should be noted that the account that shared the video has a Russian flag on its profile photo.
The original, unedited version of the video was also shared by the users of Odnoklassniki.ru and Twitter. In these videos, Pablo Acosta’s face is not replaced with that of Zelensky, although users of the social network point out that this person is Zelenskyy. One Twitter user wrote that the video showed Zelensky’s request for another batch of weapons for NATO. A video with an identical description was also shared on Odnoklassniki.ru.
About the Source
The Facebook page Conservative Wing was created on February 15, 2022. The discrediting posts against the opposition (1,2,3), civil activists (1,2), journalists (1,2), and the US Ambassador (1, 2) are regularly published on the page. The page also publishes posts against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The page also contains posts that support the pro-Kremlin Alt-Info, which creates the impression that the said page is related to the “Conservative Movement” party.
“Myth Detector” has verified another altered photo disseminated by the “Conservative Wing” in the past as well. The mentioned page was also involved in discreditation campaigns. For more details, see:
- Sponsored Posts and Anti-Liberal Messages – Actors and Tactics Behind the Discreditation Campaign Against June 20 Demonstration
- Who Disseminates an Altered Photo of a Mikheil Saakashvili Supporter? (In Georgian)
The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.
Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.
