The out-of-context 19-second video has been viewed millions of times on Twitter. It features a clip of Zelensky speaking at a news conference last week as an interpreter translates his words into English as follows: “The US will have to send their sons and daughters, exactly the same way as we are sending, their sons and daughters to war. And they will have to fight, because it’s NATO that we’re talking about. And they will be dying, God forbid, because it’s a horrible thing.”
The clip has circulated widely on Twitter among critics of American financial and military support for the Ukrainian defense against Russia’s invasion. Monica Crowley, a conservative commentator who served in the Trump administration as a spokesperson for the Treasury Department, posted the video on Tuesday night and
wrote, “Zelensky now directly threatening us and claiming American sons and daughters will have to fight and die for Ukraine. HELL NO.”
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah shared former Trump administration official William Wolfe’s tweet of the video in which Wolfe claimed that Zelensky wants “dead Americans on Ukrainian soil.” Lee himself
added in a tweet on Tuesday night: “Zelensky has no right to presume that our sons and daughters will fight his war. Shame on him. We’ve somehow sent the message that we work for him. Shame on us!”
Lee deleted his tweet after CNN informed his office on Wednesday about how the video was taken out of context.
Zelensky made the comments at a news conference on the anniversary of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He was asked what message he would give to the growing number of Americans who believe the US is giving Ukraine too much support.
Zelensky began by saying, per the interpreter, “I would like to thank all of the American people that are supporting Ukraine — the Congress, the president, the TV channels, the journalists, and everyone that has been supporting us.” He urged the US to avoid losing its position of “leadership” in the world, asked…
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