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A video posted on social media shows a despairing Ukrainian soldier panning his camera around to reveal trenches lined with bodies of dead and injured soldiers. These videos reveal the chilling reality experienced by many Ukrainians battling Russian troops on the frontline — a key component of modern-day warfare.
However, in reality, this widely shared footage is in fact AI-generated, as verified by forensic AI detection company Sensity AI.
Researchers from Sensity warn that deepfakes are being used to manipulate public opinion and undermine trust in the military, off the back of authentic videos of Ukrainian soldiers documenting their daily life from the ground.
The clips are made to appear as authentic frontline footage. For example, in another social media video, a soldier can be seen criticising the Ukrainian army’s military leadership.
“I don’t want to serve with them,” says the soldier in the video. “And I don’t need them either.”
Sensity found more than 1,000 similar videos spread across social media, identifying a core dataset of 60 videos manipulated by artificial intelligence.
These videos include AI-generated faces, as well as unnatural voices. In some cases, authentic footage is combined with AI-generated elements, making it more challenging to detect inconsistencies.
From TikTok to Pravda
According to Sensity, there is a consistent pattern to these videos to make sure they are spread widely on social media, flooding users’ feeds.
In the batch analysed by Sensity, videos are typically uploaded onto platforms such as TikTok or Telegram from newly-created or anonymous accounts.
Once they start attracting engagement: views, likes, and comments, they are then reposted on platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. On these platforms, algorithms reward emotionally-charged content by spreading it further onto users’ timelines.
Once the narrative circulates on social media, Sensity reports that pro-Russian military bloggers or pro-Kremlin media sites such as the Pravda network pick up the content.
Undermining morale
Although the videos are different, they push similar narratives with the intent of influencing how the war is perceived.
This includes showing soldiers despairing about the situation on the frontline, claims that Ukrainian military leadership is inadequate or absent, as well as allegations surrounding mismanagement in the Ukrainian army.
Many of these videos also aim to normalise surrender, showing Ukrainian soldiers claiming that abandoning their posts is their only way out of the war.
The goal of these videos is to undermine trust in Ukraine’s institutions and military command, as well as weaken morale, according to Sensity’s Founder Francesco Cavalli.
“The real danger of these videos on platforms such as TikTok and Meta is not simply that some users may believe them; it is that they can shape perception at scale, inject confusion into fast-moving events, and gradually erode trust in what people see,” he said.
“The old fear was one fake video of a president,” he added. “The new reality is thousands of synthetic videos targeting smaller audiences, where no single clip needs to go viral to be effective.”
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