ALBAWABA - A clip of Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova offering to give back the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to Ukraine if Kyiv withdraws its military from Russia's Kursk Region has stormed online.
It is worth noting that Russia controlled the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant less than a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 when President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Did Russia offer to leave Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant if Ukraine withdraws from Kursk?
Russian Foreign Ministry revealed that the video went viral on social media showing spokesperson Maria Zakharova offering Ukraine to withdraw from Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant if Kyiv halts its military operation in the Kursk Region is a "deepfake".
(Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
The ministry confirmed in a statement that the video, which circulated the most on Telegram application, is also a "crude forgery". It added the clip was edited and manipulated using an old video of Maria, RT reported.
In the footage, Zakharova allegedly said: "The Russian side is ready to consider transferring the Zaporizhzhia NPP to the control of Kyiv’s representatives in exchange for the voluntary withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Kursk Region."
"Ukrainian special services, with the assistance of their Western overseers, continue to actively use a deepfake and other artificial intelligence-based technologies to spread false information about the situation in the border regions of our country," Russia's Foreign Ministry said.
