DISINFO: Ukrainian official admitted Ukraine’s involvement in the terrorist attack in Crocus City
SUMMARY
The head of the National Security and Defence Council, Alexei Danilov, actually admitted Ukraine’s involvement in the terrorist attack in Crocus City.
He posted a mocking post on his channel. "It is fun in Moscow today, I think it's a lot of fun. I would like to believe that we will arrange such fun for them more often."
RESPONSE
This so called confession video from the head of the National Security and Defence Council Alexei Danilov is fabricated.
He did not say the words "fun in Moscow" either on his personal channel, nor on Ukrainian TV, as reported by different pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets report.
The doctored video with Danilov was aired by NTV live in the very first special programme dedicated to the terror attack at Moscow's Crocus City Hall, on the night from March 22 to March 23, 2024, as the Ukrainian Center for strategic communications noted.
BBC Verify has established the clip - broadcast by NTV - is actually an edit of two Ukrainian TV interviews. It goes on to explain:
"Both can be found on YouTube. The first is an interview with Danilov from 19 March. The other one was published three days earlier and features Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov.
The quote by Danilov which appears in the NTV video cannot be heard in the original interview.
Audio analysis, carried out for BBC Verify by the Advanced Forensic Technology Research Group at Liverpool John Moores University, suggests the audio was manipulated in the NTV video".
The excerpt is also absent from the website of the NTV. No correction from NTV followed. Other disinformation outlets republished NTV's initial doctored video, without questioning its authenticity.