This incident is completely made up. Propagandists superimposed their own audio on a recording of a real match between tennis players.
A Ukrainian fan shouted «Ukraine needs elections» at a tennis match in France — such news is being spread by pro-Russian sources. It is reported that the man has since been banned for life from the Roland-Garros French Open, whose representatives called the incident a «personal and aggressive provocation» that has no place in sport.
«Tennis is not a place for political statements, and Ukraine is not a place for elections,» the authors of the news ironically conclude.
Screenshot — Telegram
However, this story is completely made up, which is easy to check. The propagandists used footage from the match between Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas and Italian player Matteo Arnaldi. A recording of key moments from the game, a fragment of which was edited by the propagandists, is available online. There is no such exclamation in the original video.
The purpose of such fakes is to discredit the Ukrainian government and undermine its legitimacy. In reality, neither Ukraine nor Western partners have any doubts about this issue: the law of Ukraine On the Legal Regime of Martial Law prohibits holding presidential elections during martial law, and the Constitution provides that the current president exercises his powers until the newly elected president takes office. The legitimacy of Volodymyr Zelenskyi was separately confirmed by German Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Berbok, the spokesperson of the European Commission on Foreign Affairs, Peter Stano, and the EU Ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Maternova. A survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed that 70% of Ukrainians are convinced that Volodymyr Zelenskyi should remain in the post of president until the end of martial law.
Read refutations of other sports-related fakes in the following materials: Fake: Romanian Fans Chanted Putin’s Name at the Ukraine-Romania Match and Held Up the DPR Flag and Fake: British Boxer Called Oleksandr Usyk «Beggar for the Army.»
