Prison photo of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is taken from fictional TV series
The image comes from the TV show Servant of the People
CLAIM
A prison photo circulated widely on social media claims to show Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after being captured by Russian forces. A claim is also made by some of those sharing the photo that Zelenskyy is being transferred to the Black Dolphin prison in Russia’s Orenburg region under high security.
BACKGROUND
The claim began to spread on March 25, 2024. The post also claimed that a video of Zelenskyy had been shared on the programme of conservative TV host Tucker Carlson, who has more than 12 million followers on X.
The same photo was since shared numerous times and continues to be circulated, garnering tens of thousands of views. One X user posting in French with more than 14,000 followers posted the claim and also mentioned Donald Trump as one of the people who had shared the video. That post has so far been has been viewed 41,000 times.
On April 8, 2024, an X user with more than 35,000 followers shared the photo and the claim. It has been viewed more than 526,000 times and shared almost 900 times.
METHOD
A reverse image search of the picture being shared in the post reveals that the photo is, in fact, taken from a scene from the first episode of the third season of “Servant of the People,” a hit TV show in which Zelenskyy plays a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after a video of him complaining about corruption goes viral.
The logo for Zelenskyy’s production company, Kvartal 95, can be seen at the beginning of the episode.
From this analysis, we can conclude that the image is taken from a fictional TV series and is not real.
The post being circulated also claims that Tucker Carlson shared the video. Carlson began broadcasting on X in June 2023 after being fired from Fox News.
Carlson’s first episode aired on X on June 7, 2023, and although Zelenskyy and Ukraine were part of the topics discussed, no video was shown of Zelenskyy in prison.
A search on X for Zelenskyy as a topic on Carlson’s show reveals that Tucker Carlson mentioned Zelenskyy in captions on the show’s account four times. Only one of those included a video, and the image of Zelenskyy did not feature in that, either.
From this analysis, we can conclude that Tucker Carlson never shared a video of Zelenskyy in prison.
RATING
The prison photo of Zelenskyy is taken from a TV series and was not shared in a video by conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: Ep. 1 [Accessed 11 Apr. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: https://twitter.com/search?lang=en&q=zelensky%20(from%3ATuckerCarlson)&src=typed_query [Accessed 11 Apr. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: BOMBSHELL 🚨 TUCKER RELEASED AN VIDEO FROM ZELENSKY BEING CAPTURED… [Accessed 11 Apr. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: TRUMP ET TUCKER ONT PUBLIÉ UNE VIDÉO DE LA CAPTURE DE ZELENSKY… [Accessed 11 Apr. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: BOMBSHELL TUCKER RELEASED AN VIDEO FROM ZELENSKY BEING CAPTURED [Accessed 11 Apr. 2024].
Servant (2023). Available at: Servant of the People – Season 3 | Episode 1 | English subtitles Full Episodes. YouTube. [Accessed 11 Apr. 2024].
France 24 (2022). TV comedy that launched Zelensky to presidency back on Netflix. [online] France 24. Available at: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220316-tv-comedy-that-launched-zelensky-to-presidency-back-on-netflix [Accessed 11 Apr. 2024].
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