Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
As Nepal clearly took sides with the West in backing the UN vote condemning Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine—unlike other South Asian countries, a video claiming that Ukraine’s President Zelensky has expressed joy and optimism that his country will surely win the war after the recruitment of Nepali youths (Gorkha) into Ukranian Army is being widely shared on social media. Newschecker found that the video was fabricated by using unrelated footage and images.
Departing from its traditional policy of maintaining neutral positions in international conflicts, Nepal voted in favour of a UN resolution on the Ukraine crisis. Nepal was among the 141 members who voted against Russian invasion of Ukraine. Five countries voted against the resolution, while 35 countries including India and China abstained from taking sides, according to the UN.
The Security Council had voted on February 27 to call for a rare emergency special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
In the midst of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, TikTok user @khusi_limbo posted a video, which shows visuals of Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky walking on the street while army personnel are seen parading. Text superimposed on the video reads, “After recruitment of Nepali in Ukraine army, Ukraine’s President says: Now our victory is sure as Gorkha soldiers are with us. He adds, ‘Gorkhali army has the history of playing a decisive role in winning a war be it a small or big.’”
The video posted on March 3 has been spreading fast garnering 80.2k likes, 345 shares, and 1010 people commenting on the post until the time of publishing this article.
Fact Check Verification
To check the authenticity of the claim, Newschecker split the video into different key-frames and conducted a google reverse image search and found an image of British Gurkha soldiers bearing resemblance to the image seen in the viral video. The twitter post from May 2018 showed 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles rehearsing for the Royal Wedding.
Further, we saw a logo of Khabarhub online portal on a visual of the viral video indicating that the visual was taken from the video of Khabarhub. Taking it as a clue, we looked for the footage matching the viral video on the YouTube channel of Khabarhub online and came across a video matching the visual from the viral video. The YouTube video explains the identity of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky who has shown courage and determination in his country’s war against Russia.
Our findings make it clear that the claim is fabricated, with a video formed by merging unrelated visuals and images to make the claim. Though Nepal has supported the UN resolution on the Ukraine crisis for various geopolitical reasons, the country has not sent its soldiers to Ukraine. Neither Nepali youths have been recruited into Ukraine’s Army nor Ukraine’s President has issued such a optimistic statement about winning the war as claimed in the video.
Conclusion
The viral video claiming that Ukraine’s President Zelensky has expressed joy and confidence that his country will win the war because Nepali youths (Gorkha) have been recruited into Ukranian Army is fabricated by using unrelated footage and images.
Sources
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Sanjeeb Phuyal is the Nepali Editor of Newschecker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He brings over a decade of experience writing and editing news. In his previous stint, he worked as online editor for The Kathmandu Post. With the growth of social media platforms—and the ever-growing competition amongst media outlets to churn out breaking news, he feels that fact-checking every piece of information has become more essential today than ever before.
