Russia

Does a video featuring a burning fuel tank rolling away after an explosion show an event in Iran in June 2026? No, that's not true: The footage shows an explosion at a gas station in Chechnya, a republic within the Russian Federation, in October 2024, not Iran. The clip also appeared on a social media account labeled as a parody.…

Does a viral video of fires capture the aftermath of the June 9, 2026, anti-immigration protests in Belfast, Northern Ireland? No, that's not true: The recording showed explosions that same day on a gas pipeline in Russia's Dagestan. The original sound did not include any chants -- that was later digitally added to the version of the video that went…

Did UN Women publish a report saying it confirmed "639 rapes and over 3,000 cases of sexual harassment in the Ukrainian Armed Forces"? No, that's not true: At the time of writing, there was no such report on the UN Women website, and the organization confirmed to Lead Stories it had never published such data. Posts with the claim reused…

Did Israeli-based news outlet Haaretz report that Zelenskyy's former associate Timur Mindich fled to Israel carrying "800kg of gold" on a private jet? No, that's not true: The claim shared in viral posts originated from a counterfeit website that mimicked Haaretz. No credible news organizations reported on "800kg of gold" supposedly carried by Mindich on board the plane bound for…

In a real social media post, did Donald Trump write about a Joe Biden visit to Moscow in 1987 and implicate him in various conspiracy theories? No, that's not true: The supposed post does not appear on the president's official Truth Social account, and there are no reliable reports that it ever did. Biden also never visited Moscow in 1987.…

Does a viral video of people washing their clothes in a fountain actually show "Indian visitors" seen at one of the major parks in Moscow, Russia? No, that's not true: The video was initially labeled as AI content. Lead Stories' manual analysis showed numerous inconsistencies strongly pointing to AI as well. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published…

Is a video showing a prisoner grabbing a female prison guard who is putting a dinner tray in their cell real? No, that's not true: The video shows clear signs of being AI-generated, and a detection tool confirmed this with 99.9% certainty. While the earliest versions of the video found online provided no sources or specific details about the alleged…

Does a video show a Russian submarine arriving in Havana, Cuba, in May 2026? No, that's not true: The footage dates back to June 2024, when a nuclear-powered Russian submarine and three Russian warships arrived in Havana as part of a port visit coinciding with Russian naval exercises in the Caribbean. The clip resurfaced in social media posts falsely claiming…

Did Cole Tomas Allen's brother or family give the police a warning 48 hours in advance of his shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner? No, that's not true: Court documents filed in the case against Allen state that members of his family found out minutes before the attack. According to the documents, an email was sent to members of…

Did the Russian state-owned news agency TASS accurately report that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is listed as a child trafficker in the Epstein files? No, that's not true: Zelensky's name does appear in 39 documents in the Epstein records on the U.S. Department of Justice website. However, none of those documents have anything to do with child trafficking. The claim…