What was claimed
The video shows a young Ukrainian soldier crying and saying, “I don’t want to die.”
our verdict
This video is not real and was created using artificial intelligence.
A widely shared video of a young Ukrainian soldier crying and saying he doesn’t want to die is not real and was created using artificial intelligence (AI).
There are some visual inconsistencies that indicate the video was created using AI. This clip has also been debunked by several other fact checkers.
The video and its still images were shared on Facebook and X with the claim that it shows a 23-year-old Ukrainian soldier.
The AI-generated clues in this clip include the camouflage pattern on the man’s sleeves, which appears to change slightly when he brings his hands close to his face, and the black buttons on the side of his helmet, which also appear to morph from a flat shape to sharp edges.
The first was a now-deleted TikTok account that shared a number of videos purporting to show Ukrainian soldiers crying. Many of these clips also showed signs of AI, such as soldiers who appeared to be bleeding and Sora’s watermark indicating that the clips were created using an AI text video generator developed by OpenAI. The Ukrainian government’s counter-disinformation center also called the video a “deepfake.”
Before sharing such videos, first consider whether the video is from a verifiable and trustworthy source. Our guide to identifying AI content and our toolkit on how to identify malicious information can help you do this.
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