TikTok videos which ‘glorify’ Russian mercenary violence in Ukraine ‘viewed a billion times’, reports says
TikTok videos that “glorify” the violence of Russian mercenaries in Ukraine have been viewed more than a billion times on the social media app, misinformation monitors have said.
One of the clips appears to show the October execution of Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former Russian mercenary with the Wagner Group who had switched sides.
Wagner is a private military company with suspected links to the Kremlin and is understood to be fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine.
NewsGuard analysts say they identified 160 videos on TikTok that “allude to, show, or glorify acts of violence carried out by the Wagner Group, including 14 that appear to show the execution of Nuzhin, the former Russian mercenary”.
They said content promoting the Wagner Group on TikTok has been viewed more than a billion times.
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TikTok is owned and operated by ByteDance, a Chinese internet conglomerate partially owned by the Chinese government.
NewsGuard also identified more than 500 music videos that, while not depicting violent acts, advocate violence against Ukrainians, including calls to kill Ukrainians because they are “Nazis”.
And they say the clips – which serve as propaganda and recruitment tools for the Wagner Group – appear to violate TikTok’s guidelines, which ban content that “praises, promotes, glorifies, or supports violent acts,” as well as videos that “incite violence against, or otherwise dehumanize an individual or a group”.
About a month into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence said Russia was expected to deploy more than a thousand mercenaries, including senior leaders of Wagner to undertake combat operations.
Wagner is believed to have links to the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin
Sir Jeremy Fleming, the head of GCHQ, said they were likely to be used as “cannon fodder” to try to limit Russian military losses.
In August, British military intelligence said Wagner played a role in the capture of Ukraine’s second-largest power plant in the eastern region of Donetsk.
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The group is believed to be funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to Vladimir Putin who is also alleged to run Russia’s “troll farm”, the Internet Research Agency.
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Mr Prigozhin was one of the many oligarchs sanctioned by the West in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though he has always denied any connection with Wagner.
The European Union says Wagner was founded by Dmitry Utkin – a former Russian soldier reportedly adorned with Nazi tattoos – and is said to have been named after Richard Wagner, Hitler’s favourite composer.
NewsGuard said when it asked TiKTok for comment about the content, it “did not challenge NewsGuard’s findings”.
A TikTok spokesperson said: “There is no place for hateful or violent content on our platform.
“Our Community Guidelines clearly outline that we do not allow people to use our platform to threaten or incite violence, or share attacks or slurs based on people’s nationality or other protected characteristics.
“We will take action on content found to violate these policies.”
Sky News previously spoke to a group of young Russian men who claimed they were recruited by Wagner and flown on Russian military planes to assist troops loyal to Bashar al Assad in Syria.
Donald Trump has threatened Russia with more sanctions after a series of deadly strikes across Ukraine, as he said of Vladimir Putin: “What the hell happened to him?”
The US president appeared aghast at the conduct of his counterpart in the Kremlin after drone and missile attacks in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities left 12 people dead and dozens more injured.
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Speaking to reporters at an airport in New Jersey ahead of a flight back to Washington, Mr Trump said: “I’m not happy with Putin. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s killing a lot of people,” he added. “I’m not happy about that.”
Mr Trump – who said he’s “always gotten along with” Mr Putin – told reporters he would consider more sanctions against Moscow.
“He’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he said.
Ukraine said the barrage of strikes overnight into Sunday was the biggest aerial attack of the war so far, with 367 drones and missiles fired by Russian forces.
It came despite Mr Trump repeatedly talking up the chances of a peace agreement. He even spoke to Mr Putin on the phone for two hours last week.
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Hundreds of drones fired at Ukraine
‘Shameful’ attacks
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to sign a ceasefire deal, and suggested Russia isn’t serious about signing one.
In a statement after the latest attacks on his country, he urged the US and other national leaders to increase the pressure on Mr Putin, saying silence “only encourages” him.
Mr Trump’s envoy for the country, Keith Kellogg, later demanded a ceasefire, describing the Russian attacks as “shameful”.
Three children were among those killed in the attacks, explosions shaking the cities of Kyiv, Odesa, and Mykolaiv.
Ukrainian siblings Tamara, 12, Stanislav, eight, and Roman, 17, were killed in Russian airstrikes. Pic: X/@Mariana_Betsa
Before the onslaught, Russia said it had faced a Ukrainian drone attack on Sunday. It said around 100 were intercepted and destroyed near Moscow and in central and southern regions.
The violence has escalated despite Russia and Ukraine completing the exchange of 1,000 prisoners each over the past three days.
Donald Trump says he will delay the imposition of 50% tariffs on goods entering the United States from the European Union until July, as the two sides attempt to negotiate a trade deal.
It comes after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a post on social media site X that she had spoken to Mr Trump and expressed that they needed until 9 July to “reach a good deal”.
The US president had last Friday threatened to bring in the 50% tariffs from 1 June, as European leaders said they were ready to respond with their own measures.
But Mr Trump has now said that date has been put back to 9 July to allow more time for negotiations with the 27-member bloc, with the phone call appearing to smooth over tensions for now at least.
Speaking on Sunday before boarding Air Force One for Washington DC, Mr Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Ms Von der Leyen and she “wants to get down to serious negotiations” and she vowed to “rapidly get together and see if we can work something out”.
The US president, in comments on his Truth Social platform, had reignited fears last Friday of a trade war between the two powers when he said talks were “going nowhere” and the bloc was “very difficult to deal with”.
Mr Trump told the media in Morristown, New Jersey, on Sunday that Ms Von der Leyen “just called me… and she asked for an extension in the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation”.
“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it. I believe July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out,” the US president added.
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Shortly after, he wrote on Truth Social: “I agreed to the extension – July 9, 2025 – It was my privilege to do so.”
On his so-called “liberation day” last month, Mr Trump unleashed tariffs on many of America’s trade partners. But since then he’s backed down in a spiralling tit-for-tat tariff face-off with China, and struck a deal with the UK.
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Much of his most incendiary rhetoric on trade has been directed at Brussels, though, even going as far as to claim the EU was created to rip the US off.
Responding to his 50% tariff threat, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
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