False claim Zelenskyy told American leaders to 'stop crying' over Ukraine aid | Fact check

Andre Byik, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Zelenskyy told American leaders to 'stop crying' over Ukraine war funding in TV interview

A Dec. 14 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes a clip of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking with Fox News host Bret Baier.

"Spend all your money to the weapon, to the drones, to the society, to the pensions and etcetera," Zelenskyy says in the clip. "And don't cry, because you are leaders. And that's it."

On-screen text included in the post reads, "Zelensky tells Americans to 'stop crying' give your money (sic)."

The post was liked more than 14,000 times in three days.

More from the USA TODAY Fact-Check Team:

Our rating: False

The viral video takes Zelenskyy's comments out of context. He was addressing criticism of his leadership coming from within Ukraine. He was not addressing American leaders.

Zelenskyy addressed Ukrainian leaders, not US ones, in TV interview

Zelenskyy did not tell American leaders to "stop crying" and send aid to support Ukraine's war with Russia. The clip in the Instagram post comes from a Dec. 12 studio interview on Fox News and cut the president's comments short.

At one point in the interview, Baier asks Zelenskyy what he would say to critics such as Kyiv's mayor, who Der Spiegel reported sees the country on a path toward authoritarianism as a result of wartime restrictions.

Zelesnkyy responded by imploring Ukrainian government officials to ask soldiers on the front line what they need and think about how to defend Ukrainians.

"Do this," Zelenskyy said. "Not build roads for today. Don't do it. Spend all your money to the weapon, to the drones, to the society, to the pensions and etcetera. And don't cry, because you are leaders. And that's it."

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In the interview, Zelenskyy said additional U.S. funding would signal moral support for Ukraine's war effort, but he largely avoided weighing in on aid negotiations in Washington.

"I know that you have your own challenges – domestic problems – and they're huge, I'm sure," Zelenskyy told Baier. "But I think that United States is a great country which manages the complex problems – I mean managing how to get success, how to stop wars in all the world."

Zelenskyy's December trip to Washington was his third since the start of the war, USA TODAY reported. He met with Republican and Democratic lawmakers and President Joe Biden in an effort to secure additional U.S. aid.

The Instagram user who shared the clip did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Zelenskyy didn't tell Americans to stop crying over aid | Fact check

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