President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is attempting to sow division within Ukrainian society, creating “chaos” within the country.
“Our intelligence has information, which also came from our partners,” the President explained in an interview with Bloomberg.
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According to Zelensky, the new Russian disinformation plan has the code name “Maidan 3,” referring to the central square of Kyiv, which was the focal point of protests in 2004 and a 2014 uprising that overthrew of the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
“Maidan is a coup for them, so the operation is understandable,” Zelensky added.
On the evening of Nov. 7, two videos surfaced on social networks in which Zaluzhny allegedly labeled Zelensky a traitor and urged the military to march on Kyiv. These videos were later revealed to be deepfakes and part of a Russian special operation.
The first deepfake with Zaluzhny surfaced on the Russian Telegram channel Radio Trukha on Nov. 7 at 8:33 p.m., the news outlet Babel reported.
The main points were as follows: Zelensky eliminated Zaluzhny’s assistant, and then he would kill him too, handing over Ukraine to Putin. It was purportedly because of Zelensky that the counteroffensive failed. Ukrainians were urged to go to the Maidan, and the military was called upon to abandon their positions and march on Kyiv.
The second video was shared a little later, at 2:16 a.m., by the Trukha Barcelona Telegram channel. In this fake video, “Zaluzhny” claimed that the media had, as expected, labeled his appeal a deepfake and Russian propaganda.
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Both channels are unrelated to the Ukrainian channel network of the same name, Trukha.
Against the background of this context, suspicions were raised when earlier in the evening of Nov. 7, Volodymyr Aryev, a member of parliament from the European Solidarity faction (led by former president Petro Poroshenko), wrote on Facebook that Defense Minister Rustem Umerov had asked the President to dismiss the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny.
After 20 minutes, the lawmaker deleted the post, calling it a mistake.
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