War

Does a video show Russian President Vladimir Putin "warning that America should not interfere in the Israel Palestine war" amid the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: The video of Putin is from December 2022 and he never mentioned Israel or Palestine in his comments, as the correct translation shows. He was talking about…

Did Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spend over a million dollars on Cartier jewelry in New York City while accompanying her husband on his recent official trip to the United States? No, that's not true: Zelenska was in Canada on the day of the purported shopping spree. Media provided extensive coverage of the…

Did Sweden confirm the loss of all Leopard 2A5 tanks delivered to Ukraine? No, that's not true. The government of Sweden did not confirm the loss of the tanks, both the press officer for the Swedish Defence Minister and a spokesperson for the Swedish armed forces told Lead Stories. A post making the claim gives no evidence nor does it…

Did USA Today produce and publish a clip capturing Volodymyr Zelenskyy's bodyguard starting a "drunken brawl" in New York City, and did that incident take place during the Ukrainian president's visit to the United States in September 2023? No, none of that is true: A bar's representative, the NYPD and USA Today refuted the claim. The video doesn't even show…

Did a billboard go up on New York's Fifth Avenue during the summer of 2023, reading "No Zelensky No War"? No, that's not true: This video is fake and has been digitally edited. The original video posted on YouTube in 2021 shows the corner of 57th St. and 5th Ave, in New York, at the Tiffany & Co. jewelry store.…

Did Ukraine issue a stamp with an "image of the Nazi" who was "given a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament" to recognize Yaroslav Hunka as Ukraine's national hero? No, that's not true: The website of the Ukrainian national postal service does not contain any mentions of the supposed stamp. Furthermore, the image shared on social media contained a barcode…

Does a viral video prove that Ukraine now employs bulletproof vests specifically made for "pregnant women fighters"? No, that's not true: The post on social media misleads audiences about the new body armor's design -- it was made not for pregnant people, but for all female military personnel in order to take their anatomy into account. The caption on the…

Did the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) report that Poles have started to rename their Wi-Fi networks to insult Ukrainian refugees in Poland? No, that's not true: Both DW and the Ukrainian government refuted the claim. A Lead Stories analysis indicates that the claim's list of supposed Wi-Fi networks may predate Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine that displaced…

Did an LED billboard at the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan feature the words "Glory to Urine" against a waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to New York City for the United Nations General Assembly meeting on September 19, 2023? No, that's not true: This video is not current or authentic. Shots…

Does a photo on social media prove that Ukraine's former minister of defense Oleksii Reznikov went to Europe to enjoy "successful earnings" right after leaving his job in September 2023? No, that's not true: Reznikov posted that image on his Facebook page in 2020. That was before he became the minister of defense, in November 2021. The claim originated from…

Did the United States transfer $6 billion to Ukraine by mistake? No, that's not true: In the summer of 2023, the Pentagon admitted that it overestimated the value of military gear sent to Ukraine due to an accounting mistake but the money was not misspent or even spent. It is still there as of this writing and will be used…

Did at least two German news outlets, Deutsche Welle and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, publish reports about a graffiti mural in Berlin that showed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy labeled a "Cannibal," eating the dismembered arm of a Ukrainian soldier holding an AR-15-style rifle? No, that's not true: These screenshots are fabricated propaganda, designed to look like news reports about anti-Ukrainian…

Did former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson perform a Nazi salute while standing in front of a controversial flag when he was visiting Ukraine? No, that's not true: This photo has been digitally altered. Johnson received an honorary doctorate, known as Doctor Honoris Causa, at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. The original photo of the event does not show…

Was Russian President Vladimir Putin toppled, as of September 7, 2023? Did Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister, lead the coup, "acting in partnership with the United States"? Did Medvedev maintain close contact with the Wagner mercenary boss Evgeny Prigozhin who attempted to march on Moscow two months before the plane crash that killed him in August 2023?…

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin attend Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's funeral to pay his last respects? No, that's not true: Putin did not attend Prigozhin's funeral, according to news organizations including The Guardian. In reality, the video in a post shows Putin paying respects to his late judo trainer, Anatoly Rakhlin, in 2013. The Kremlin also posted photos of Putin…

Did the BBC, a British public service broadcaster, produce and publicly post a video claiming that the Wagner mercenary boss Evgeny Prigozhin is still alive? Did the clip confirm that the plane crash -- that, according to the Russian authorities, killed Prigozhin -- was staged? No, that's not true: BBC denied that it ever released this video. It first appeared…

Did RT, a Russian state news organization, publish a headline saying that the plane whose crash killed Yevgheny Prigozhin was piloted by a person suffering "post-vaccine myocarditis"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that RT ever published such a story about the August 23, 2023, plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner group, a Russian…

Does the Russian region of Kaliningrad "now belong to Belarus," with NATO forces supporting Minsk in its struggle against Russia? No, that's not true: No parties allegedly involved in the supposed confrontation issued any statements confirming the purported annexation, and no credible sources corroborate the claim. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on YouTube on August 25,…

Did Ukraine capture an entire "train" carrying multiple SU-57 jets used by the Russian army? No, that's not true: The video making such a claim in its clickbait headline did not actually say anything about this fighter jet. As of this writing, there is no evidence that Ukraine was able to seize any SU-57s. The claim appeared in a reel…

Does a video shared to social media on August 23, 2023, show Russian oligarch Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin's jet "on fire before crashing"? No, that's not true: While the video itself is authentic, it documented an unrelated plane crash that reportedly occurred nearly two months earlier on June 24, 2023, "near the village of Kantemirovk," about 700 miles from the village…