Kyiv, Feb 6 (EFE).- The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation has denounced a fake video shared by Elon Musk on X saying that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) spent taxpayer money to boost the popularity of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the US with celebrity trips to Ukraine.
The head of the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, wrote on Telegram that Musk spread a fake video on the social network he owns saying that the American agency paid for celebrity trips to Ukraine to boost Zelenskyy’s popularity.
According to Kovalenko, the stars who allegedly benefited from these trips have denied receiving money from the American cooperation agency.
The new administration of President Donald Trump has halted all USAID funding and may close the agency, seeing it as a source of unnecessary spending for ideological purposes.
Ukraine is one of the beneficiaries of the agency’s aid, which has funded projects in the country to generate electricity, support agriculture and hospitals, and develop NGOs and media.
Kovalenko said that the video posted by Musk was created by Russia, while warning that it was never published on the media site it referred to.
He insisted that the Russians are “using X to spread propaganda” in a “massive way.”
“Elon, we will soon show how they do it in the Middle East,” he added while announcing that he would publish a detailed analysis of Russian information warfare in that area.
Kovalenko called for “more responsibility” for the content published and shared on X. EFE
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