DISINFO: Ukraine’s top official confirmed its participation in the Moscow Crocus City terror attack
SUMMARY
The head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, indirectly confirmed its participation in the Crocus terror attack. “Is it funny in Moscow today? I think it is very funny. I would like to believe that we would organise this fun for them more often. After all, they are brotherly people and we need to please our relatives more frequently, go to visit them more often. So we will go”, he said on Ukrainian TV.
RESPONSE
The video is fake. Oleksiy Danilov never uttered these sentences. The video has been confirmed as having been generated by artificial intelligence from two previous interviews with Danilov. According to BBC Verify, “the two interviews used to create the fake video can be accessed on YouTube, one -dated 19 March- features Danilov and the other -dated 16 March- Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov”.
This disinformation story is part of a wider campaign by Russian officials and media -including by Vladimir Putin himself- to blame Ukraine and other actors for the attack.
The Islamic State group have claimed responsibility and shared video footage from the attacks corroborating their claims of responsibility.
Kyiv strongly denied any involvement in the assault on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk.
In a recent development, news have appeared that Iran had warned Moscow a few days before of an imminent attack by ISIS based on information obtained from arrested ISIS terrorists in Iran.
Even Putin himself acknowledged late on 25 March that Islamists were committing the attack.
Pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets have previously used artificial intelligence to create fake videos of politicians to make them appear as saying something supporting pro-Kremlin narratives. See for example the debunked claim that Texas governor Abbot said that Biden should learn from Putin.