AI-fabricated video of crying Ukrainian conscripts goes viral again
Like some narratives never disappear, in some cases specific fakes also make a comeback. This is the case with the crying Ukrainian conscript.
Footage of crying soldiers in Ukraine shared by retired General and former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn contains two fabricated AI-generated videos.
UPDATE: August 29, 2026.
Instagram and TikTok show various videos of forced conscriptions, some of them out of context, some completely fabricated. The case of the “crying” conscript is one of them, aiming to trigger emotions, especially because the young gentleman in the video is crying. The problem: The video is AI-generated, and even if somebody lacks the eye and technical skills to spot the fake, the claim that an ordinary 23-year-old Ukrainian man was forcibly mobilized should also help to detect the fake. As a general rule, Ukrainian men become subject to mobilization from the age of 25, although there are specific exceptions for people under 25 who are already liable for military service.
The video already circulated in late 2025 and was debunked by several international fact-checking organizations. In the video, the alleged soldier says that he is only 23 years old, does not want to die and is being sent to the front.There are several signs that the video was generated with AI, for instance details of the uniform, the voice of the alleged conscript and visual inconsistencies that appear during the video. The TikTok account that originally posted the video had published several similar videos, some of them carrying a Sora watermark. Sora is an AI video generation tool developed by OpenAI. The video was shared in several languages, and one Hungarian version alone reached around 1.8 million views.
Meanwhile, retired General and former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn also shared the AI-generated fabricated fake footage. In 2015, Flynn attended RT’s 10th anniversary dinner (RT was formerly known as Russia Today), sitting close to Vladimir Putin. The video Flynn shared also contains a second fabricated AI-generated video. This one pretends to show a young Brazilian volunteer in Ukraine crying and begging his mother to get him out. It is not a real person, and no matching real identity was found. This also belongs to the same late-2025 wave of fake crying-soldier videos.
In 2015 Flynn attended the Russian state-controlled channel RT’s 10th anniversary dinner, sitting close to Vladimir Putin.
Screenshot: Gen Mike Flynn Facebook Page
Screenshot of the “Gen Mike Flynn” Facebook page. The image on the right shows the second fabricated video, featuring the alleged “crying Brazilian volunteer.
Further Reading
AFP Fact Check (2025): Detailed debunk of the AI-generated “crying Ukrainian soldier” video and its origins.
https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.84J699E
Deutsche Welle (2025): Fact-check on the viral videos of allegedly crying Ukrainian soldiers and their international spread.
https://amp.dw.com/en/fact-check-viral-videos-of-crying-ukrainian-soldiers-are-fake/a-74659145
Full Fact (2025): Independent verification that the viral video of the supposed Ukrainian conscript was AI-generated.
https://fullfact.org/conflict/fake-video-ukrainian-soldier-crying-ai/
AFP Fact Check (Portuguese language, 2026): AI-generated video falsely claims to show a crying Brazilian volunteer fighting in Ukraine.
https://checamos.afp.com/doc.afp.com.89NT3CQ
