A video has appeared online purportedly showing a Ukrainian TV advert encouraging young people to turn in their family members if they show any interest in Russian culture.

The advert is attributed to the Ukrainian children’s channel PLUSPLUS and shows a cartoon boy, wearing a black t-shirt with a Ukrainian trident, discovering his sister listening to the Russian song “Sigma Boy” over a video of US President Donald Trump dancing.

The boy then picks up the phone and reports his sister to the authorities, as a voiceover says: “Remember, if your sister worships Russian fascists, she’s not your sister.”

A screen then appears with the contact details of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), urging viewers to denounce anyone caught doing the same.

The video has been shared widely on social media, often with captions alleging that Ukraine is a dictatorship that spreads anti-Russophone propaganda and does not want peace in the war against Moscow.

It’s even been shared by Russian-language online news outlets, which accuse Ukrainian television of turning into “a transmitter of hatred”, which it instils in the “youngest of viewers”.

This is all false.

No official sources have shared the video, and the only format we’ve been able to find is a recording of a TV screen, rather than a direct video file itself.

There are also several clues that the video has been AI-generated — for example, when the boy reaches for the phone, we can see that he has five fingers and a thumb.

His hairstyle also changes between shots, as does his sister’s appearance.

PLUSPLUS and the 1 PLUS 1 Media Group have also released a statement on Instagram denying the authenticity of the video, noting other graphical errors such as the placement of the logo and the presence of a QR code, which the statement pointed out doesn’t appear during ad breaks.

The statement blames Russian agitators for creating and spreading the video. Indeed, other fact-checkers report that it first appeared in Russian Telegram channels.

“Russia continues to try to destabilise the Ukrainian information field and create a negative image of Ukraine in the international arena, especially in the light of recent events,” PLUSPLUS and 1 PLUS 1 Media Group said in the statement. “And it is using all possible methods that are beyond absurd to do so.”

They did not respond to Euronews’ requests for comment.

It’s possible that the video was inspired by a real Ukrainian campaign to combat the recruitment of young people by Russia’s special services, but ultimately, the video is false.

In the real campaign video, the graphic used at the end with the SBU’s contact details is in a completely different style from the one used in the fake video.

The fake TV advert is yet another example in a long list of disinformation spread by pro-Russian actors since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It repeatedly tries to discredit Ukraine, falsely legitimise the war, and victimise Russia and Russian speakers in Ukraine.

Often it has tried to stir up a false notion of “Russophobia” and hatred of anything Russian in Ukraine and Europe in general, in an attempt to show them in a negative light.

Sigma Boy criticism: A sign of Russophobia?

The girl in the video is dancing to the song “Sigma Boy” by 12-year-old Russian bloggers Betsy and Maria Yankovskaya, which came out in October 2024.

Its title refers to the popular internet term “sigma male”, which describes a “lone wolf” type of man who is self-reliant and successful.

The song quickly gained popularity, amassing more than 115 million views on YouTube in five months, and even trended outside Russia in countries such as Germany and South Korea.

However, the song has also garnered criticism from abroad, with some concerned that it promotes harmful notions such as toxic masculinity.

German MEP Nela Riehl even told the European Parliament in December that she believed it “communicates patriarchal and pro-Russian worldviews” and is an “example of Russian infiltration of popular discourse through social media”.

Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, a working body of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, also accused the song of being “part of Russia’s information warfare”.

“The Kremlin uses music as a soft power tool to push its narratives, with children as the primary target,” it said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has in turn accused the comments of demonstrating Europe’s “madness” and “clinical Russophobia”.

However, many across the continent have dismissed concerns about the song, with very few politicians or media outlets actively criticising it and no government taking any action to restrict it.

“This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Russophobia is rampant in Western countries,” the European External Action Service’s disinformation database, EUvsDisinfo, said in February. “By amplifying a minor discussion, pro-Kremlin voices are seeking to push the Russophobia and cultural persecution narrative by turning a minor cultural debate into another supposed example of Western hostility and madness.”

“Framing the few disparate comments about Sigma Boy as a widespread European political obsession is a clear distortion of facts, as only one EU politician and a handful of media outlets commented on the song,” it said.

– Talyta França contributed to this report