The fake Zelensky "surrender" video
An early wartime deepfake tried to fake a national surrender, and failed.
- TargetUkraine and its armed forces
- What was fakedPresident Volodymyr Zelensky
- The messageAn order for soldiers to lay down arms
- SurfacedVisible artifacts and an immediate official denial
What happened
Weeks into Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a deepfake video appeared showing President Volodymyr Zelensky telling Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their weapons and surrender. It was briefly posted to a compromised Ukrainian news website and pushed across social media.
How it surfaced
The fake was relatively crude: the head looked mismatched with the body, the skin tone and proportions were off, and the voice did not quite fit. Platforms removed it, and Zelensky himself quickly posted an authentic video rejecting the message. The deception collapsed within hours.
Why it matters
This was one of the first deepfakes deployed in an active war, and an early warning of synthetic media as an instrument of statecraft. It failed because the technology was not yet good enough and the official rebuttal was fast. Neither of those safeguards can be assumed in the Veo-era fakes at the top of this archive.
Sources: BBC · Reuters. Further reading in the archive trackers.