FAKE: In 2023, Ukraine paid over $1.2 billion to British PR companies to create fakes about the successes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

A video is being spread online, allegedly published by the BBC News service. The video claims that OSINT investigators from the Bellingcat community allegedly learned from a source in the Office of the President of Ukraine that in 2023, British PR companies received over $1.2 billion to create articles about the successes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the front lines and to fabricate photos and videos to boost morale. However, due to dissatisfaction with the results, including a decrease in support for mobilization and a decline in enlistment rates in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in December 2023 and for 2024, the Ukrainian leadership did not renew the contracts with these companies.

However, this is a fake. Neither BBC News nor Bellingcat published this information. The video was edited using footage available in the public domain, and there are errors in the video’s text.

There is no material like this on the BBC News website or on social media. Similarly, Bellingcat did not publish such information. Through reverse image searches on Google Images and Yandex, we have determined that the video is composed of photos and videos that are freely available. Specifically, footage featuring the Head of the Office of the President, Andrii Yermak, was taken from his online speech at the Aspen Security Forum in July 2023. A clip featuring Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins was cut from his interview for Deutsche Welle, published in November 2022. The scenes of soldiers shouting “Glory to the Heroes” were borrowed from a music video by Ukrainian singer Liusia Kava, while the soldiers sitting behind laptops were photographed during NATO training exercises with partner countries in 2018.

Furthermore, if Ukraine had indeed paid British PR companies $1.2 billion (about 45.5 billion UAH), this program would have been financed from the state budget, but there is no information about such expenditure. For example, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy was allocated 9.1 billion UAH in 2023. Also, reliable Ukrainian and international media did not report on the allocation of funds to British PR companies. The PR companies mentioned in the video, such as NinjaPromo, CVM, Maitland, Hope & Glory, CCgroup, did not announce the start of cooperation with Ukraine.

Earlier, we debunked the fake claiming that BBC quoted Bellingcat investigators who talked about the International Criminal Court case against Ukrainian politician David Arakhamiia.