Fabricated news article frames Duterte's arrest as obstacle to Russia-Ukraine ceasefire
"Friends don't abandon friends," reads part of the caption to screenshots of a purported news article shared on Facebook on March 17, 2025.
The screenshots were shared on the verified page of a candidate for May's mid-term elections
According to the supposed news report, titled "Putin Refuses Peace Talks Over Duterte's ICC Detention in Ukraine Negotiations", Russian President Vladimir Putin said he "will not sit at a table to discuss peace while a leader who stood with us is shackled by a court that serves Western interests".
An image appearing to show Duterte and Putin shaking hands accompanies the purported article, which is followed by a Wikipedia entry for its supposed author.
Image
Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on March 27, 2025
The post circulated after Duterte was arrested and transferred to The Hague to face a crimes against humanity charge stemming from his "war on drugs" that claimed the lives of thousands of mostly poor men, often without proof they were linked to drugs (archived link).
Duterte once called Putin "his hero" and made two official visits to Russia during his presidency (archived here and here)
Putin also has a standing arrest warrant issued by the ICC in 2023 for crimes related to his country's war against Ukraine (archived link).
Similar posts were shared elsewhere on Facebook, and were also translated into Tagalog.
"Thank you President Putin for this. We owe you this one. That's why from the start I truly admire you because you have the same goal as Father Digong," read a comment on one of the posts, using a nickname for Duterte.
Another comment read: "Thank you president Putin. The Filipino people salute you."
'Fabricated news article'
The journalist whose byline appears at the bottom of the purported article
"No, I did not write this article nor have I ever written anything similar," she said on March 26. "It appears that the entire thing is AI-generated."
A review of the purported article also shows it contains several factual inaccuracies.
For example, it claims Putin made his remarks during a press conference in Moscow with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday, March 15.
But Putin's joint press conference with Lukashenko, where a US-Ukraine plan for a 30-day ceasefire was discussed, in fact took place on Thursday, March 13 (archived here and here).
Moreover, a check of the joint press conference's official transcript shows there was no mention of Duterte or the ICC proceedings (archived link).
The image of Putin and Duterte shaking hands that accompanies the article also appears to be AI-generated and bears the watermark for X's
Siwei Lyu, director of the University at Buffalo's Media Forensics Lab in the United States, told AFP there are also other elements in the image that suggest it was created by AI (archived link).
"There are visible artifacts around the handshake and noticeable issues with Putin's eyes, which appear unnatural. The thumb also looks distorted, further suggesting signs of digital generation," he said on March 27.
Image
Screenshot of the image in the fabricated news article, with visual discrepancies highlighted by AFP
Duterte's arrest on March 11 has spawned a flood of misinformation, some of which AFP has debunked here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
Video. Kharkiv hit by drone and missile barrage in overnight Russian attack
Explosions followed air raid sirens just after 2.28 am, with fires breaking out across the city. One drone crashed in a park but was safely disarmed. A man was injured, and several fires erupted in industrial areas, including tyre warehouses, sending thick smoke over the western outskirts. In Sumy, rescuers came under repeated attacks while responding to earlier strikes that injured one person and damaged homes and vehicles. Elsewhere, a drone strike on Odesa left one person injured. Ukraine's air force said Russian forces launched a barrage of 95 drones; 61 were intercepted or jammed.
Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
At least five killed in Russian air strikes on Pryluky, officials say
At least five people, including a one-year-old child, his mother and grandmother, were killed on Thursday in an overnight drone attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky, officials said. Six drones hit a residential area in the city shortly before dawn, injuring nine others, according to authorities. The one-year-old killed was the grandchild of the local fire chief, Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The fire chief, identified by local officials as 50-year-old Oleksandr Lebid, "arrived to respond to the aftermath right at his own home," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram. "It turned out that a Shahed drone hit his house." "Today our hearts are scorched by pain," the police force wrote on Telegram. "This is not just a loss — it is three generations of life uprooted." Liudmyla Horbunova, 55, who lives across the street from where the Shahed drone hit, said Shyhyda had moved with her son last weekend to her parents' house from her home in Kyiv because she was scared of potential Russian attacks on the capital. "She ran away from Shaheds in Kyiv, but they found her here, in Pryluky," Horbunova told AP. Pryluky, which had a pre-war population of some 50,000 people, lies about 100 kilometres east of the capital Kyiv. The city is far from the front line and does not host any known military assets. The last time Pryluky was struck was in November last year, when a Russian missile hit an administrative building and injured one person. Zelenskyy said a total of 103 drones and one ballistic missile targeted multiple Ukrainian regions overnight, including Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro and Kherson. "This is another massive strike," Zelenskyy said. "It is yet another reason to impose the strongest possible sanctions and apply pressure collectively." Hours later, 19 people were injured in a Russian drone strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Those hurt included children, a pregnant woman, and a 93-year-old, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. At around 1:05 am, Shahed-type drones struck two apartment buildings in the city's Slobidskyi district, causing fires and destroying several private vehicles. "By launching attacks while people sleep in their homes, the enemy once again confirms its tactic of insidious terror," Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. Those attacks came just hours after US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. According to Trump, Putin said "very strongly" that Russia will retaliate for Ukraine's stunning drone attacks on military airfields deep inside Russia on Sunday. Diplomatic efforts to stop Russia's more than three-year-long war have so far delivered no significant progress, and Moscow's grinding war of attrition has continued unabated. Zelenskyy, who has accepted a US ceasefire proposal and offered to meet with Putin in an attempt to break the stalemate in negotiations, wants more international sanctions on Russia to force it to accept a settlement. Putin has shown no willingness to meet with Zelenskyy and has indicated no readiness to compromise. Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz is due to meet Trump in Washington on Thursday as he works to keep the US on board with Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.
Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
North Korea doubles down on support for Russia's war in Ukraine
North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-un has once again affirmed his "unconditional support" for Russia's all-out war against Ukraine during a meeting with a top Russian official. The authoritarian ruler made the comment during talks with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang on Wednesday, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Kim reiterated his 'unconditional support for the stand of Russia and its foreign policies in all the crucial international political issues including the Ukrainian issue", KCNA reported. The two countries' ties have strengthened in recent years, with Pyongyang sending thousands of troops to Russia to participate in its war against Ukraine. The North Korean soldiers have been deployed in Russia's Kursk region, parts of which were seized by the Ukrainian army in a surprise offensive last August. Speculation about North Korea's deployment of troops to Russia first arose at the end of 2024, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South Korean officials accusing Pyongyang of sending soldiers to support Moscow's war efforts. However, it wasn't until April that Moscow and Pyongyang officially confirmed the presence of North Korean troops on the battlefield. A monitoring group comprising South Korea, the US, Japan and eight other countries last week classified Russia and North Korea's military alliance as 'illegal", saying it flagrantly violates UN sanctions. The report said their pact was allowing North Korea to fund its banned ballistic missile programme. The group also expressed concern that Russia might also transfer sophisticated technologies to help North Korea enhance its nuclear weapons programme. In late April, North Korea unveiled the country's first naval destroyer, named the Choe Hyon, which experts say was likely built with Russian assistance, in further proof of growing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
