CTV News published no story about this, and Canadian law enforcement recorded no such incident.
Anonymous Telegram channels are circulating a video in Reels format bearing the logo of the Canadian broadcaster CTV News. According to the video, following the first match of the FIFA World Cup in Canada, Ukrainian fans allegedly carried out a violent attack on Israeli citizens in Toronto. Two Israelis allegedly ended up in a coma, eight more have been hospitalized in a stable condition, and at least 20 people were injured in total. Among those detained, the message claims, are former members of the Azov Brigade.
The video is a fabrication. No story about any such incident appears on CTV News‘ website or official social media accounts. No other credible Canadian, international, or Ukrainian media outlet reported on any attack made by Ukrainian fans on Israelis in Toronto or any other Canadian city during the World Cup. The Toronto Police Service and Canadian law enforcement agencies likewise recorded no such incident.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is taking place from June 11th to July 19th across the United States, Canada, and Mexico — the first World Cup in history to be jointly hosted by three countries. Group stage matches in Canada are being held in Toronto and Vancouver. Large-scale international events of this caliber have traditionally been targeted by Russian propaganda, which latches onto high-profile news hooks to fabricate fakes that exploit audience interest in the event. Earlier this year, for instance, propaganda launched a wave of disinformation tied to the Olympic Games in Italy, aimed at discrediting Ukraine and Ukrainians in the international infospace.
Portraying Ukrainians as antisemites is one of the most persistent narratives in Russian disinformation. According to a special report by the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center, “More Than A Century Of Antisemitism” (January 2024), Russian authorities — from the Tsarist era through the Soviet period and up to the present day — have used antisemitic conspiracy theories and disinformation for over a century to discredit, divide, and weaken their opponents at home and abroad. In the context of the full-scale invasion, as the same GEC report documents, the Kremlin resorts to falsely portraying Ukraine and its supporters as Nazis, demonizing the Jewish identity of Ukraine’s president, and distorting the facts of the Holocaust. Public opinion data, however, contradicts this image of Ukrainians. According to the ADL Global 100 — the world’s largest survey of antisemitic attitudes, conducted by the Anti-Defamation League across 103 countries — Ukraine’s index score is 36 out of 100, while Russia’s stands at 62, where a higher score indicates a greater prevalence of antisemitism. Russia has the highest score in all of Europe. Moreover, researchers estimate that approximately half of Russia’s adult population — 71.1 million people — holds antisemitic attitudes. Ukraine ranks 38th in this index; Russia ranks 84th out of 103, where a lower ranking indicates a higher level of antisemitism in a country.
StopFake has previously debunked similar disinformation in the article Fake: Ukrainians Become The Most Antisemitic Nation in Europe.
