Amid escalating violence between Russia and Ukraine, viral social media posts claim Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been killed in a Russian airstrike. DW Fact Check investigated these allegations.

The posts feature a 15-second video of a massive explosion in a city. However, a reverse image search reveals the footage is from the 2015 Tianjin warehouse explosion in China, which killed 173 people.

Zelenskyy himself posted a video on his official X account on June 20 showing a meeting with OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann. The OECD confirmed the meeting took place. Major Ukrainian news outlets have no reports of such an incident.

This is not the first time false death rumors have circulated about Zelenskyy. Similar claims appeared earlier in June. Analysts warn that AI-generated content and bot networks are increasingly used to spread disinformation about world leaders.

Source: www.dw.com