DEBUNKED: Ukrainian man in video is not threatening Czechs and Slovaks, but smugglers from Ukraine
An older video has recently begun to circulate on Facebook and many Czech and Slovak Facebook users are now commenting hatefully on it. The video is accompanied by a Slovak text alleging that it shows a Ukrainian man making threats against Czechs and Slovaks.
That claim is untrue. Upon closer inspection it is clear that what is actually happening in the video is something else entirely.
News server Manipulátoři.cz has reported on the recirculation of this particular video. At first glance, it is illogical to conclude that the man is making threats toward Czechs and Slovaks in the Ukrainian language, as many Ukrainians do speak at least basic Czech or Slovak.
Manipulátoři.cz requested three different persons of Ukrainian nationality to interpret what the man is saying. All three agreed that he is not actually threatening Czechs and Slovaks.
The man’s anger is aimed at what he calls the “taxi drivers”, i.e., the smugglers who have been demanding exorbitant amounts of money to drive the refugees from Ukraine into the Czech Republic, Poland or Slovakia. These smugglers have made an enormous amount of money on people fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine, frequently demanding a thousand dollars per trip.
The video dates to the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, when thousands of people at once were seeking refuge in neighboring countries. That is why the man in the video is speaking very emotionally, and his anger is comprehensible in the context of the situation pertaining at the time, when people in desperation were being exploited by those who should have been aiding them.
“Instead of helping our people, you are ‘screwing’ them. We will find you. We will ‘fuck up’ your knees and your children’s knees. Prague, Brno, Bratislava,” the man says to the smugglers.
