The propagandists fabricated a screenshot of a Ukrainian news article with a quote purporting to be from Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, saying that EU countries ‘owe’ Ukraine for security. In reality, Podolyak said that each country independently determines the amount of military assistance Ukraine can expect.
Social media users and Kremlin-linked Telegram channels are continuing their efforts to discredit Ukraine on the international stage. This time, the propagandists spread fake information claiming that Mykhailo Podolyak allegedly said that EU countries “must” pay Ukraine at least 1% of their GDP for security. As supposed proof, they circulated a fake screenshot from the Ukrainian news outlet Censor.NET with a misleading headline.
“Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Yermak (head of the presidential administration – ed.), has decided to ‘put all of Europe in debt’. In his opinion, EU countries will now have to pay Ukraine no less than 1% of their GDP for security,” social media users falsely claimed, referring to the fake news screenshot.
After this information started circulating, StopFake decided to check whether Mykhailo Podolyak was really claiming that EU countries “owe” Ukraine security payments. It turns out that this claim is false.
The widely circulated screenshot from a Ukrainian news outlet is a fake by propagandists. It appears to show that the “news” was published on Censor.NET on 25 March 2025 at 21:17 in the “News” section. However, StopFake checked this section and found no such article at the time indicated.
Further searches for the keyword “Podolyak” both directly on Censor.NET and via Google yielded no results. Moreover, no reputable Ukrainian or European media reported on this allegedly “sensational” statement by the adviser to the head of the Presidential Administration.
The only recent interview in which Podolyak spoke about Ukraine’s role in European security was on Telemarathon on 28 March. In this interview, he commented on the Coalition of the Willing summit held the previous day in Paris. According to Podolyak, Ukraine is an integral part of the European security architecture, which requires either active investment or coordinated strategic action by European partners. However, he also noted that “each country independently determines the amount of military assistance Ukraine can expect”. It appears that Russian propagandists have taken this statement and manipulated it to create yet another false narrative about Ukraine.
Previously, StopFake debunked claims that Ukraine’s deputy defence minister had complained about “inadequate” military aid from the UK.
