The video with the «Putin» chant is fake. The audio was added to the video with the help of a video editor. The photo with the DPR flag was also faked, and there was no DPR flag at the Munich stadium.
Some netizens, as well as many media outlets, began actively writing about Romanian fans chanting «Putin» and even carrying DPR flags into the stadium at the Euro 2024 match between Ukraine and Romania. As evidence of such statements, a video showing shouts of «Putin» and photos with the «DPR» flag were spread on social media.
Russian propaganda uses such edited videos to show the appearance of European support for Russia’s policy of aggression and for Russian President Putin in particular.
But, as in other similar cases, the «European support» for Putin is based on fiction and fakes. In fact, the video with the Romanian fans was edited. The propagandists simply added other audio to the video with the fans, and the audio was also edited. The rhythm and sound of the drums make it easy to hear the popular obscene chant of Ukrainian football fans «Putin Khuylo», which was first performed by fans of the Metalist football club in Kharkiv on March 30, 2014, during a joint march with fans of Shakhtar Donetsk. The propaganda removed the second word from the famous song, leaving only «Putin» and the sound of drums.
The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security in Ukraine also drew attention to this fake.
Also, in numerous videos from the match on social media, you can hear Romanian fans shouting, and of course, none of them chanted «Putin».
The photo with the DPR flag at the Munich stadium is also a fake. StopFake journalists analyzed the video of the match and saw that where the flag of the so-called «DPR» appears in the video, there was no such flag at the stadium.
Moreover, UEFA has even banned Russian flags from being brought to Ukraine’s match against Romania. As a reminder, in 2022, UEFA and FIFA banned all Russian clubs and national teams from international tournaments, including the World Cup, European Championships, and European Cups.
This is not the first time Russia has used the topic of football to create fakes. Previously, StopFake refuted fakes that «British football fans “want nothing to do with Ukrainians”», that the uniforms of the Polish national team for Euro 2020 allegedly depicted Lviv and Vilnius, and that Ukrainian Football Association announces matches «in Memory of 300,000 Fallen Soldiers».