Days after Russia announced war on Ukraine, a viral video has emerged suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced his plans to declare war on Kenya and Ghana. However, the claim is fake and which stems from a doctored video.
On Thursday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced war on Ukraine in a televised address.
Putin Angered Over Kenya's Invasion Into Russian Missions?
The fake claim generated from a viral TikTok video which surfaced on multiple social media platforms. The 20-second video shows Putin giving a televised address. The English captions including the video reads, "I have made a decision of military invasion. How can Kenya invade into our missions? Kenya has put itself in a war that it can't even shoot a single bullet."
"Bombing Kenya will only take few minutes for my military men. As from now we'll start sending our missiles to Nairobi so we can destruct Kenya," reads the translation further.
The video was widely shared on social media raising concerns among many. "Hopefully they from Ghana, Gabon and Kenya...with a dash of clever blacks from SA. They love Ukraine isnt? they even voted with America's nato at UN security council....Now they face the mighty Putin," tweeted a user.
Here is the Truth
Debunking the claim being made on the basis of the video, Lead Stories reported that the Russian President did not threaten Africa. or, more specifically, Kenya. "The edited and miscaptioned clip is taken out of context and does not mention Africa or Kenya at all. The original video is from February 24, 2022, when Putin announced his intention to conduct a military operation in Ukraine," stated the outlet.
In a communique to the outlet, Boriana Milanova Treadwell, a senior lecturer of broadcast journalism at the University of Miami, translated the clip from Russian to English for the outlet. "A decision has been made to make a special military operation. Whoever tries to create a dangerous situation for our country and for us must know that Russia's answer will be immediate and we will cause you such consequences that you haven't encountered in your history ever," the translated script read.
In his televised address, calling the Ukrainian invasion a 'special military operation', Putin said that the decision was made in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years." He also claimed that Moscow does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territories.
