Altered video shared as children identifying Zelenskyy as Hitler during quiz

What's the claim?

A video circulating online claims that children identified Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Adolf Hitler during a quiz. In the 11-second clip, which seems to be from a quiz competition, four children sit behind a podium labeled "Primary." A voice prompts, "Give the full name of this person," as an image of Zelenskyy appears. The children can be seen discussing and eventually answering "Adolf Hitler." The text on the screen is in Russian, translating to: "Look at the screen and name the full name of this person." As the children respond with "Adolf Hitler," the Russian text "Adolf Hitler" also appears on the screen.

On X (formerly Twitter), the video was shared with captions saying, "African children were asked to identify a photo of Zelensky. Q. Who is this person? A. Adolf Hitler." Archives of such posts are here, here, and here. 

Similar posts in various languages, including French, Italian, and Arabic, have circulated, with archives available here, here, here, and here. This claim has also been shared on Facebook, and archives of those posts can be found here, and here.

Screenshots of the viral claims. (Source: X/ Modified by Logically Facts)  

However, the video is altered; the original footage shows the children misidentifying Hollywood actor Jason Statham as Hitler. The image of Statham was digitally replaced with that of Zelenskyy.

Russian leaders have accused Ukrainian leaders of being authoritarians and even “Nazis," with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov even likening the Ukrainian president to Hitler.

What did we find?

By conducting a reverse image search, we found that the original video was uploaded on YouTube by Television Jamaica (archived here) on October 18, 2017, titled "Spalding Primary vs Excelsior Primary - Jnr. Schools Challenge Quiz - October 17, 2017." The Junior Schools' Challenge Quiz is a competition for children in primary or prep schools. 

The video, which is 5 minutes and 57 seconds long, shows the 27th match in the first round of TVJ's Junior Schools' Challenge Quiz 2017, showing Excelsior Primary from St. Andrew competing against Spaulding Primary from Clarendon. 

 

The viral segment begins at 2 minutes and 42 seconds, where the host instructs the children to "look at the monitor and give the full name of this person." An image of Hollywood actor Jason Statham appears, and the children discuss and answer collectively as "Adolf Hitler." The host then clarifies, "That's actor Jason Statham." This segment was digitally altered to replace Statham's image with that of Zelenskyy.

In February 2020 the same video was altered to show children calling Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness "Hitler." At that time, Television Jamaica issued a statement (archived here) addressing the clip, noting that it had been modified to misrepresent an actual question and answer from the TVJ Junior Schools' Challenge Quiz competition.

Screenshot of Television Jamaica's notice from February 2020 regarding a similar edited clip. (Source: Facebook)

The verdict

An altered video falsely claims that children misidentified a photo of Zelenskyy as Adolf Hitler. The original video shows the children misidentifying Hollywood actor Jason Statham as Hitler, and his image was digitally replaced with that of Zelenskyy.