Fact Check: Man seen dancing in viral video is not Ukrainian Prez Zelensky; it's deepfake

Hyderabad: A video of a man dancing in a red sparkly jumpsuit is being widely shared on social media. Users claim that he is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Similar posts can be seen here and here.

The video is being shared with the caption, “Kicking off the new year like @ZelenskyyUa – full of unexpected twists and a lot of laughs! Wishing you a year so bright, even Zelensky would give it a standing ovation.”

Another tweet was shared with the caption, “ Breaking Exclusive Footage of #Zelensky. Never before Seen footage Leaked of the Dance Zelensky does every time we send him another Billion Dollars.”

Fact Check

NewsMeter found the claim to be false as the viral video is a deepfake.

We ran keyframes from the viral video through a Reverse image search and found the original version of the video on the Instagram handle with the username Gamgamtv dated Feb 7, 2022. On carefully analyzing the video, we found that the person grooving in the video was not Zelensky but someone else.

Through an extended search, we found the same video on Telegraph published dated October 23rd, 2023 on Dance.gif.

Not only this, X has also added community notes below the tweet carrying the viral video calling it a deepfake.

A comparison image is provided below.

Through our search, we found multiple similar videos of fabricated dancing videos of Volodymyr Zelensky. The reason probably why the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was subjected to such deepfakes is probably because in the past Zelensky has also worked in the entertainment industry as a comic actor. He was seen in several music videos. You can have a look at this party music video starring Zelensky.

NewsMeter has fact-checked a similar article earlier as well. The fact check can be seen here.