During the initial weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian state media and its proxies claimed that Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky had fled Kyiv and that videos recorded of him addressing the Ukrainian people were done in front of “green screens”. Recording with a “green screen” would allow video editors to superimpose subjects onto a background of their choosing. There is no credible evidence that the Ukrainian President’s office has used this video editing technique.
Several pro-Kremlin accounts recycled this narrative on social media during Russia’s recent rocket and kamikaze drone attacks on Ukrainian civilian centres – including RT reporter Rachel Belvins. A photo of Zelensky, filming an actual virtual reality segment in June 2022 has been misused as proof that Zelensky is filming in front of a “green screen”. An October 11, 2022 Tweet containing this false claim was retweeted over 13 thousand times. The hologram video was produced for several European IT conferences in June 2022 as reported in this Irish Times article. A YouTube video was also produced about how the Zelensky hologram video was produced.
Pro-Kremlin narratives that cast doubts about the actual whereabouts of President Zelensky and claims that his administration is manipulating videos to mask his actual location are intended to provoke questions about President Zelensky’s trustworthiness and erode support for his government and Ukraine.
