Russian propaganda used altered images from footage by Ukraine’s FREEDOM TV to falsely claim that Ukraine is “appropriating the Iran victory,” the channel reports.
According to the news outlet, Russian Telegram channels made posts on 8 April featuring such claims, illustrated with a frame from a FREEDOM TV broadcast that was edited to display the title “Ukraine defeated Iran. Our air defense instructors are coming home”. The propagandists also replaced the images on the screens in the FREEDOM TV studio.
Ukraine’s state-owned company Multimedia Platform for International Broadcasting (MPIB) said that the Russian posts had been “picked up by some Ukrainian media and bloggers without verification or critical reflection.”
The company clarified that in reality, FREEDOM TV had aired a report about the European Commission’s stance on Russia’s threats to the Baltic countries at 9:46 a.m. on 8 April. The screen in the studio was displaying Marko Mihkelson, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament, who had joined the broadcast via video call.
“The real title was as follows: “The European Commission to Russia: an attack on one EU member is an attack on the entire bloc,” explained the MPIB.
In June 2025, unknown impersonators used the FREEDOM TV logo in a fake news report about Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna.
