"Claim: "Ukrainian men as young as 23 are being conscripted and sent to the front" DW Fact check: False However, not only is the video factually incorrect (the minimum conscription age in Ukraine was lowered from 27 to 25 in April 2024, but never to 23), but it is also fake, to be precise: it was generated by artificial intelligence."
"Not only that, a basic facial recognition searchreveals that the face is actually that of Vladimir Yuryevich Ivanov, a young Russian streamer from St. Petersburg who uses the online pseudonym Kussia88. On its own, "kussia" (pronounced "kasha") means "porridge" in Russian (). But the use of "88" (neo-Nazi code for "Heil Hitler") and the Latin transcription using a double "SS" are no coincidence. Nor is the use of the letters "IA"."
An emotional video showing a crying young man claiming mobilization and pleading that he is "only 23" circulated widely across social media and amassed millions of views in multiple languages. Reverse image searches and tracking show the clip was posted hundreds of times and framed as proof of forced conscription of 23-year-olds. The claim is false: Ukraine lowered the minimum conscription age from 27 to 25 in April 2024, not to 23. Forensic review finds the clip is AI-generated, with visual anomalies like a poorly fitting helmet, and facial recognition identifies the face as Russian streamer Vladimir Yuryevich Ivanov (Kussia88).
Read at www.dw.com
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