This whole news is made up. Zelensky has never made such statements, and the text itself is full of logical errors.
«This is not aid, this is an archaeological expedition» — with these words, Volodymyr Zelensky allegedly announced during a telethon that he plans to bill Western partners for disposing of unusable military equipment. Pro-Russian sources claim that the total amount that the Ukrainian president will demand from allies may exceed the budgets of some countries, which has caused outrage in Washington, Brussels and Berlin. It is claimed that Ukraine is even going to create a museum of «Western generosity», where the worst examples of the provided equipment will be exhibited.
A publication in Polish on this topic on Facebook has collected almost 1,000 shares at the time of writing. However, this whole news story is made up. The text does not indicate the source of the information, so it is not surprising that no credible Ukrainian or Western publication has written about the so-called initiative; although it makes sense to assume that such a sharp statement by Zelensky would certainly attract the attention of the press. In addition, the publication contains numerous logical errors. For example, it claims that Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a relevant bill, although it is obvious that Ukrainian legislation does not apply to Western partners in any way, and therefore such a document would have no legal force. The publication also attributes to Zelensky the statement that some of the artillery systems transferred to Ukraine are so outdated that the instructions for them are written in Latin. It is absurd, considering that Latin fell out of widespread use almost 500 years ago. The text also quotes a non-existent Ukrainian military analyst named Ivan Sidorov.
Despite the fact that the publication is full of such nonsense, social media users took the post seriously and called on the West to stop supporting Ukraine. This is probably the reaction that the propagandists were trying to achieve. The Facebook profile that first spread the disinformation publishes mainly anti-Ukrainian posts and conspiracy theories.
The narrative that Western weapons in the arsenal of Ukrainian Armed Forces are supposedly outdated and unusable has been used by Russian propaganda for a long time. For example, we previously refuted fakes that the Patriot air defense system destroyed by the Russians is being sold off in parts, and that one third of the annual Patriot missile production has been destroyed in Ukraine. As Detector Media analyst Orest Slivenko explains: «This is how the Russians seek to hide their failures on the battlefield and convince the domestic audience of constant “victories.” The purpose of such messages is to intimidate and demoralize Ukrainians, to impose the false idea that the Ukrainian army is constantly losing, so there is no point in fighting further».
