A video shows the moment President Zelenskyy said “f*** him” when asked about President Donald Trump’s latest comments on Ukraine before entering Number 10 Downing Street.
The clip is misleading, and this isn’t what President Zelenskyy said. He responded to a journalist by saying: “I’m OK, thank you so much”, and did not utter an expletive.
A misleading video which appears to report that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used an expletive when asked about President Donald Trump in Downing Street before meeting the Prime Minister has been widely shared online.
The TikTok video, from an account called ‘Daily UK News’, has also gained traction on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), since President Zelenskyy visited the UK on 1 March following his clash with President Trump in the Oval Office at the end of February.
Text on the video says: “BREAKING NEWS: F* Him!” - Zelensky’s Unfiltered Response to Trump Caught on Camera Before Downing Street Talks.”
In the clip, audio dubbed over the video describes the incident as a “diplomatic firestorm”, adding President Zelenskyy was asked about President Trump’s “latest remarks on Ukraine” by a reporter, before the video cuts to a moment where President Zelenskyy speaks, his face is circled and the sound is bleeped out, which seems to support the claim that he utters an expletive.
But other footage of the same moment that he walks along Downing Street shows that Mr Zelenskyy does no such thing.
As can be seen in another clip from a different angle, as he gets out of a car and heads to greet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, he is asked: “Mr President, how was your trip? How do you feel?”
He replies: “I’m OK, thank you so much.”
The Ukrainian leader appeared not to respond to other questions shouted by journalists about President Trump, before embracing Mr Starmer and posing for photographs with the Prime Minister.
This is not the first time we have seen false or misleading content shared that appears to imitate genuine media reporting around the war between Russia and Ukraine, and we have previously fact checked a fake E! News video claiming Hollywood stars were paid to visit Ukraine by USAID, and a faked Economist cover featuring Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Before sharing content that you see on social media, it’s important to consider whether it comes from a trusted and verified source. Our guides to spotting misleading images and videos can help you better navigate content online.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because President Zelenskyy doesn’t use the phrase attributed to him in the video, but actually says “I’m OK, thank you so much”.
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