An error of interpretation, a video taken out of context and it is the social networks that get carried away. “Ukraine needs young Americans,” commented a user on Twitter, commenting on a video of Volodymyr Zelensky dubbed in English. We hear the female interpreter say this: “The United States will have to send their sons and their daughters, exactly in the same way that we send their sons and their daughters, to war. They will have to fight, because we are talking about NATO and they will die, God forbid, because it is something horrible”. Also shared by an American Internet user on February 28, the video was seen on his account more than 7.8 million times.
The excerpt is also circulating on Facebook. On TikTok, a video with the correct translation, but without the context, was seen more than 88,000 times since its publication on March 2.
FAKE OFF
Volodymyr Zelensky has not announced that the Americans will have to send troops to Ukraine. He was actually talking about a scenario where Russia would invade Baltic states, members of NATO.
The Ukrainian president mentioned this scenario during a press conference of more than two hours that he gave on February 24, a year after the start of the war. At 14 seconds in the viral video, we can indeed read an inscription in Ukrainian behind the president, which allowed us to go back to the original video, available in Ukrainian on the president’s YouTube channel. It was also posted dubbed in english on the British daily channel The Daily Telegraph. The excerpt circulating on social networks is part of Volodymyr Zelensky’s response to this question from a journalist from the American channel ABC: “Mr. President, opinion polls in the United States suggest that a number growing number of Americans believe that the United States is supporting Ukraine too much. What would be your birthday message to these Americans? »
“Who wants a Third World War? Who would accept this risk? »
The Ukrainian president begins by thanking the Americans who support the war effort, then warns that the United States risks losing NATO and its position as “leader” in the world if it withdraws its support. He then addresses American elected officials who want to reduce support for Ukraine, asking them to be “responsible and careful because people are listening to them”. “Who wants a Third World War? Who would accept this risk? “, he continues.
He then warns that if Ukraine is defeated, “Russia will enter the Baltic countries, members of NATO, and then the United States will have to send their sons and daughters in exactly the same way as we send ours, to war”, as we hear it in the Ukrainian version of the video [à 1 heure et 41 minutes]. He did not say that “the United States will have to send their sons and daughters, just as we send their sons and daughters, to war”, as we hear in the version circulating on social networks.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, like France, are among the 30 member states of the transatlantic organization. Ukraine is not a member. Volodymyr Zelensky is referring here to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. This provides that “if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each of the other members of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the measures it deems necessary to aid the attacked Ally”, explain NATO website.
However, this does not mean that this assistance translates into the sending of troops. The Allies can send “any form of assistance”, we still read on the organization’s website. This “is not necessarily military and depends on the material resources of each country”.
On Tuesday, Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, argued that Ukraine’s membership in the organization “is a long-term prospect”.
