War

Was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rushed to a hospital on July 21, 2022, and placed in intensive care? No, that's not true: Radio stations that had aired such reports had been hacked, and Zelenskyy himself proved that he was fine by posting a new video on Instagram. In his video, Zelenskyy said, in part, "... here I am in the…

Does a Facebook video show the consequences of a Ukrainian missile attack on the Russian city of Shakhty on July 19, 2022? No, that's not true: The clip consists of footage from the Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine and more-than-decade-old images of prewar Russian wildfires. The video was published on Facebook on July 19, 2022, under the title "BIG EXPLOSION." It…

Did Ukraine attack the Kerch Strait Bridge, connecting the annexed Crimean Peninsula to Russian territories, on July 13, 2022? No, that's not true: The video that makes such a claim does not include a single shot capturing such an attack. Instead, it contains multiple pre-war and unrelated images. There were no indications as of this writing that the bridge had…

Does a Facebook video show Ukrainian and NATO planes bombing Russia on July 14, 2022, resulting in a gigantic blaze? No, that's not true: The video manipulates information and uses irrelevant images. The claim was posted on Facebook on July 14, 2022. It did not contain any references to the time or dates of the purported events discussed in the…

Are NATO F-35, Mirage-2000 and F-16 aircraft "suddenly fly entering warzone" amid the Russian war against Ukraine? No, that's not true: The U.S. Air Force has deployed F-35 fighter jets to Estonia to increase protection of NATO airspace, not in Russia or Ukraine, as of July 15, 2022. The headline on this news story is clickbait, falsely claiming that Russia…

Did a huge army of one million Ukrainian special forces launch an all-out attack from the north? No, that's not true: Such an attack would be impossible. Ukraine's entire army is estimated to have only around 200,000 active-duty troops and some 900,000 reservists, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Video used in conjunction with the false statement is flagged…

Did a U.S. Air Force A-10 drop a "500-Pound BDU-50 bomb," destroying a 40-mile Russian tank convoy? No, that's not true: This is a clickbait headline with an eye-catching image, but this did not happen. The article paired with the false headline does not even repeat what the headline claims. The article is copied from a June 10, 2022, article…

Is it true that Ukraine's Sapphire rescue ship "broke into" Crimea in July 2022? No, that's not true: Russian forces captured the vessel near Snake Island in the Black Sea and brought it to the annexed peninsula months earlier. In April 2022, the rescue ship was returned to Ukraine, a developmeht that was confirmed by both Moscow and Kyiv. The…

Did Belarus declare war on Poland and does this video prove it? No, that's not true: Belarus has not declared war on its much more populous western neighbor as of July 12, 2022, and this video does not offer any proof of an action that would instantly attract international news coverage. A Nato spokesman said the claim is false and…

By Uliana Malashenko Does a video of Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russian army prove that their Ukrainian counterparts were killing civilians in Rubizhne, a town in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, in spring 2022? No, that's not true: The words of the POWs are not supported by any visual evidence or documents. Not a single reputable source in…

Does a Facebook video published in spring 2022 show Russian and Ukrainian soldiers hugging each other? No, that's not true: One of the men wears civilian clothes, and the footage does not contain any identifying information associated with the Ukrainian military. Moreover, the audio indicates that the two knew each other before the war, which explains why they expressed visible…

Does this video prove that 30 British aircraft intercepted Russia's Black Sea fleet? No, that's not true: The video shows a compilation of file photos, some not even of British aircraft, with subtitles. At least one shows an obsolete aircraft. Some of the subtitles do not make sense in terms of a military operation such as: "an early warning aircraft…

Was there a drug lab bust at a NATO nuclear base in Belgium? No, that's not true: The Belgium defense press office told Lead Stories that the drug lab bust was a few kilometers away from the Kleine-Brogel Air Base, a NATO facility. The Federation of American Scientists estimates there are 10 to 20 nuclear weapons stored at the base.…

Does this video prove the United States is sending fighter jets to help Ukraine fight Russia? No, that's not true: U.S. Air Force Capt. M. Ryan Goss said the video doesn't show U.S. fighter jets, and the video was published on an Egyptian news website in 2016. The claim appeared in a Facebook video on June 30, 2022, under the…

Was Moscow blown up by rockets? No, that's not true: Video posted in support of the claim actually shows footage from a Russian airstrike on a mall in central Ukraine. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on June 28, 2022. It includes a roughly 12-minute video and a caption that reads: KREMLIN Electricity is Under Attack! PUTIN Panics When…

Did a Russian missile do a complete U-turn and return to strike the troops who fired it? No, that's not true: This missile launch was a failure, but the missile did not return precisely to the site of its launch. It exploded in a field nearby. The angle of one video makes it appear that the missile doubled back to…

Is this video of the Russian warship, Moskva -- the English-letter spelling of the Russian term for Moscow -- sinking in April 2022 after an ammunition explosion while being towed back to Sevastopol, a major maritime port in the Black Sea? No, that's not true: This video offers no evidence that it is. It's actually a video of the USS…

Does an image of a Russian passport shared on social media in spring 2022 prove that Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy is a secret Russian citizen? No, that's not true. Analysis of similar images shows that forged passport scans are easy to create with free software if one has a passport-style photograph of a person. Zelenskyy's image in the social media…

Does a picture of a grieving girl hugging a tombstone stem from the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? No, that's not true. The photograph first appeared on a Georgian-language website in January 2019. The original image contained a Georgian-language inscription, but it was cut out from the later versions of the picture, adding more ambiguity about where the photograph was taken. The…

Did NASA hand over control of the International Space Station (ISS) to Russia after a Russian official threatened to crash it into Earth? No, that's not true: A NASA spokesperson told Lead Stories that a long-established ceremonial change of command "does not represent overall control of ISS. That remains unchanged with the crew." There was no threat to "crash it…