VLADIMIR Putin’s New Year’s Eve speech has been mocked by Ukrainians as the Russian president is accused of using AI – in an eerie repeat of last year’s TV address.

The speech, which was broadcast just before midnight across Russia, sparked an online frenzy that about the dictators appearance with some suggesting the footage was doctored.

In an address staged at the Kremlin, Putin vowed to defeat Ukraine and praised his military for a premature victory.

But eagle eyed viewers claimed the dictators tie changed colour, from red to black, stoking suspicions the footage was fake.

The pro-Ukrainian channel, Inform Napalm, posted on Telegram: “On December 31, a few minutes before the New Year, Vladimir Putin‘s New Year’s video greeting was published on the Kremlin’s official website.

“In this version, Putin was wearing a black tie.

“A few minutes later, the video was removed and replaced with another one – this time with a red tie.

“It’s noteworthy that the video with Putin in a black tie managed to air on regional Russian providers, including TV subscribers in the Orenburg region and several other regions of Russia.”

The black tie version appears unconfirmed.

But the channel wrote: “It remains only to note the fact – on New Year’s night, millions of Russians saw two different Putin’s, and quite naturally asked which one was real?

“It can already be said that Putin not only might have doubles, but he already has AI avatars for standard greetings and events, so as not to distract the aging terrorist number 1.”

Others mocked the tyrants “lifeless” face and expressed doubts over his reality.

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Telegram channel Pravda Gerashchenko said: “The head moves separately from the body, the face is ‘lifeless’, and the shoulders in the jacket seem to be drawn on.

“They say the king is not real, but an AI-generated one.”

The claims echo rumours that Putin used AI for his New Years Eve address last year.

After the clip was shared widely online, activists pointed out how the presidents neck appeared to be moving out of sync with his body.

Activist Igor Sushko, from the Wind Of Change Research Group (WCRG) think tank, wrote on X: “Putin’s New Year’s address was computer-generated. Take note of the avatar’s neck area.”

Sushko also pointed out the address was the first to have been shared to the public in 360p, instead of the 720p HD version that previous speeches were released in.

He said: “It will certainly add to domestic rumours of something being wrong with real Putin, including unverified claims that real Putin died and that his double is ill.”

Rumours about Putin’s health and reports of his paranoia have fuelled speculation he could use body doubles or camera tricks for years.

Just weeks earlier his spokesman issued an extraordinary denial after an eminent professor and Kremlin “insiders” claimed Putin had died of a heart attack on October 26, 2024.

A year earlier Putin was mocked by a Ukrainian minister for sending an alleged body double to Mariupol.

He was filmed by Russian state TV driving around the stricken city and meeting with residents on his first visit to Ukraine since the war began.

But leading official Anton Gerashchenko posted three images of Putin’s chin and questioned whether they belonged to the same man.

He wrote: “What’s up with your chin, Putin?

“Looks like lately his make-up artists….had to work with quite a low-quality copy, not even a double but its copy.

“I wonder which one of them was real?”