Update 7.07.23: An August 2022 Google Maps shot of New York’s Fifth Avenue was added to the article, as well as a June 2023 shot showing yellow traffic lights.
On June 29-30, 2023, Georgian and Russian-language (1, 2) Facebook accounts published a video depicting an English-language banner with the following inscription: “No Zelensky, No War.” according to the attached description, the banner is located on Fifth Avenue in New York.
The disseminated video is most likely altered altered, and a number of factors confirm that it was not placed on Fifth Avenue in New York. The video is not new and was taken before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Currently, the mentioned building shown in the video no longer has scaffolding; besides, the traffic lights on the street have been changed, and they are now yellow.
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The building depicted in the video is a Tiffany & Co jewelry store on Fifth Avenue and does not feature a banner about Zelenskyy.
The building depicted in the video is the Tiffany & Co. jewelry store on Fifth Avenue in New York, and the banner with the image of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not placed on it.
On June 29, 2023, the underground electrical wiring in front of the building caught fire. In the footage of the event distributed by The Wall Street Journal, we can see that the banner about Zelenskyy cannot be found on the facade of the building.
In addition, in a video shared on Facebook, we see scaffolding, which the building had not had since April 2023, when the three-year renovation of the Tiffany & Co jewelry store was completed.
In addition, in the same video, the traffic lights next to the store and on the opposite side of the road are black. And according to Google Maps, in August 2021, yellow traffic lights were already installed in this place.
The same yellow traffic lights can be seen in August 2022, a few months after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the footage taken after the fire in front of the store on June 29, 2023, we can see that the color of the traffic lights has not changed.
Hence, the video showing scaffolding and black traffic lights is not new, and it was taken before the emergence of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, other footage that would confirm the presence of the banner on the site cannot be found in open sources.
One of the first places where the video was posted was the site 9GAG, which mainly distributes entertainment content materials.
About the Sources
Russian-language accounts Andrii Telizhenko and Георгий Кушиташвили have repeatedly spread false information of anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian content in the past.
The Georgian-language Facebook account “Fantina Fantina” along with her other accounts regularly spreads false information. “Myth Detector” has debunked the false information disseminated by the user a number of times in the past.
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