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Video altered to show ABC News reported 1 million Ukrainian troop deaths | Fact check

Andre Byik   Paste BN
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The claim: Video shows ABC News reported 1 million Ukrainian soldiers have died in over two years of war

A Dec. 12 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows what appears to be a news report from ABC News about Ukrainian casualties in the country's ongoing war with Russia.

"In just 2.5 years of war, about a million Ukrainian soldiers have died, and according to the most optimistic estimates, hundreds of thousands have lost limbs," the report's narrator says. "These statistics are incredible."

"SHOCKING REPORT FROM ABC NEWS," the post's caption reads in part. The video also includes an ABC News logo in the upper-right corner.

The Instagram post was liked more than 500 times in five days. An X post with the same video shared by conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was reposted more than 1,000 times in five days.

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Our rating: Altered

ABC News did not report that 1 million Ukrainian soldiers have died in two and a half years of war. The video is an altered version of an ABC News report published in 2023 and includes fabricated audio narration.

No credible reports of 1 million Ukrainian troop deaths

The clip in the social media posts includes fabricated audio narration over genuine footage from a report published by ABC News on March 28, 2023, about a nonprofit that helps injured Ukrainian soldiers get fitted with prosthetics in New York City.

The authentic ABC News video is over five minutes long and makes no mention of the total number of Ukrainian soldiers killed since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. The only estimate related to war casualties in the report comes from a therapist who says it's possible "thousands" of Ukrainian troops had lost limbs in the war.

The Russian subtitles in the altered clip are a running translation of the fabricated narration, according to a Google translation. A spokesperson for ABC News declined to comment.

Reports of Ukrainian soldiers killed since February 2022 vary, but no credible approximation approaches 1 million.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Dec. 8 X post that 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the start of the war with Russia. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, in a Senate presentation on Feb. 13, estimated 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in action.

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Javed Ali, an associate professor of practice in counterterrorism, domestic terrorism and national security law and policy at the University of Michigan, acknowledged Zelenskyy’s "grim" update of Ukrainian battle deaths but said the number is "likely" closer to 100,000 based on previously reported estimates and the war’s sustained "lethal and destructive" nature.

"Regardless of the analytic estimates of how many military or irregular forces have died, the conflict continues to inflict tremendous human costs for both Russia or Ukraine," Ali said in an email.

More than 10,000 people per week are killed or injured "on all sides" in Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a Dec. 12 speech. Total war casualties have exceeded 1 million since February 2022, he said.

Paste BN reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post and to Kirk for comment but did not immediately receive responses.

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