Does a video of a sobbing 23-year-old actually show a real Ukrainian conscript begging for help because he does not want to die on the battlefield? No, that's not true: The video has been online since 2025. The crying man was created by AI, most likely by using the likeness of a Russia-based streamer.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) published on X by the @EyeOfGermany account on Aug. 27, 2026. The original German caption read:
🇺🇦Die Reichen kaufen sich frei. Die Armen werden in den Transporter geschoben.
In der Ukraine heißt das Busifizierung. Vor dem Bäcker, an der Haltestelle, mitten auf der Straße. Und wer genug Geld hat, taucht in den Listen der Behörden plötzlich nicht mehr auf. 2.500 bis 30.000 Dollar für eine Zurückstellung, ein Studium, eine Ausreise. Wer das nicht hat, fährt an die Front.
Oben sitzen die, die den Krieg verlängern. Unten sitzen die, die ihn sterben. Dazwischen eine Maschine, die sich die holt, die sich nicht wehren können.
Bei uns heißt das Solidarität. Wir zahlen mit, wir liefern mit und tun so, als wäre das irgendwie edel. Dabei frisst jeder längere Krieg zuerst die, die nichts besitzen. Rechts und links vom Schützengraben.
#Ukraine #Busifizierung #Mobilisierung #Klassenjustiz #Frieden #Krieg #StopTheWar
English-speaking users saw the automatically translated version of it:
🇺🇦The rich buy their way out. The poor get shoved into the vans.
In Ukraine, that's called busification. In front of the bakery, at the bus stop, right in the middle of the street. And those with enough money suddenly vanish from the authorities' lists. 2,500 to 30,000 dollars for a deferment, a university spot, an exit visa. Those who can't afford it head to the front.
Up top sit the ones who prolong the war. Down below sit the ones who die in it. In between, a machine that rounds up those who can't fight back.
With us, it's called solidarity. We chip in, we supply arms, and pretend it's somehow noble. But every prolonged war first devours those who have nothing. On both sides of the trench.
#Ukraine #Busifizierung #Mobilisierung #Klassenjustiz #Frieden #Krieg #StopTheWar
The English text across the shared video continued:
23 year old CRIES as he's sent to the front lines 😢
'I don't want to die!'
This is what the video from the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @EyeOfGermany on X.)
In the 59-second clip, the young man in the military fatigues with the patch showing the Ukrainian flag on his right forearm spoke Russian. He was seen saying that he was drafted and now was being sent to Chasiv Yar, a city in the Donetsk region of Ukraine known as a scene of heavy fighting throughout the full-scale war started by Russia on Feb. 24, 2022. The man went on to say that he doesn't want to die and that he is only 23. "Help me," he said.
After that, the video continued with what was presented as b-roll showing Ukrainian authorities grabbing fighting age men in the streets to send to the frontlines. This visual sequence paired with dramatic music was interrupted by the appearance of another crying man in an army uniform seen speaking directly into the camera in the same fashion.
AI detection tool Sightengine said that the section of the clip showing the first crying soldier was 99% likely to have been generated by AI:
(Image source: Sightengine.)
The same tool ruled that the second man from the same post was also highly likely to have been created by AI. According to Sightengine, the odds of that were 92%:
(Image source: Sightengine.)
Contrary to the post reviewed in this fact check, the current age for entering military service in Ukraine in 2026 is still 25 years (archived here), not 23. In Feb. 2026, Le Monde reported (archived here) that the average age in the Ukrainian army was 45, which is older than in many European armies.
The video of the first crying man has been online at least since Nov. 3, 2025 (archived here), when it was republished to Facebook by a profile that listed its current city as Moscow, Russia (archived here). As of the time of writing, the account on TikTok whose watermark appeared in that reel on Facebook was already deleted, but Lead Stories found a saved copy of it. While the archived page did not show the exact match to the video reviewed in this fact check, it demonstrated that the same account on TikTok published multiple videos of of this type, and some of those clips showed the Sora logo (archived here):
(Image source: the Internet Archive.)
(Image source: the Internet Archive.)
(Image source: the Internet Archive.)
Italian fact-checking platform Open earlier identified the first man from the post as a Russian streamer known under the online nickname @Kussia88.
The same claim was previously reviewed by EuroNews, Myth Detector, France 24, France Info and DW, among others.
