Canadian volunteer tells amazing stories of war in Ukraine. But it was fake and deleted on Twitter – Observer

He said he had volunteered to fight for the Ukrainian resistance and that Russian forces had infiltrated and armed themselves with guns to enter the city of Kherson. But none of that is true. oh I understand that “Canadian Ukrainian Volunteer” has 120,000 followers on Twitter. It culminated in netizens unmasking themselves and shutting down the page this weekend.

The story of the individual, whose name was never revealed — the alleged weapon, on the other hand, was named “Steve” — begins in April. The war in Ukraine started two months ago. Since then, the The volunteer gave adventurous and suspenseful accounts of the battles It allegedly fought in support of Ukraine. Only they are fake. It never happened to him.

“Our contact warned us to stay in the shadows and not expose ourselves to prying eyes,” he wrote in a tweet. telegram: “Someone smoking a cigarette at a window or balcony that opens above us, a dog barking in the distance, everything. All you have to do is cling to the walls in the dark and hold your breath“.

But photographs of a “Canadian Ukrainian volunteer” illustrating these stories gave clues that denounced them as untrue. The The weapon he claimed to have used was a replica of a compressed air pistol. After all, the photo of the bullet-riddled armor plate that the Canadian claimed was his is already circulating on Telegram channels for the illegal sale of military equipment.

A netizen was able to trace his whereabouts after discrepancies were revealed in military equipment carried by the Canadian. Sent in a private message to “Canadian Ukrainian Volunteer”, Link to article about Ukrainian volunteers fighting in Ukraine. The person double-clicked the link and blocked the Internet user who sent it.

Two clicks are enough to reveal that the owner of the “Canadian Ukrainian Volunteer” account is not on Ukrainian territory. IP address, a kind of identification number for each device, The man is said to be in Ontario, Canada. NexusIntel, the internet user who made the discovery and announced it on Twitter, even said, “The only fact is that this person is from Canada.”

This is not the first time that the war in Ukraine has been used to create fake news. As the Observer reported last month, there are mayors of cities like Berlin, Madrid or Vienna Video calls with a Vitali Klitschko impersonator, Using “deepfake”, responsible for Kyiv municipality.

“Deepfake” managed to fool European politicians by pretending to be the mayor of Kiev