War

By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that Ukrainian forces used the people of Mariupol as a human shield to blame Russia for civilian casualties on March 21, 2022? No, that's not true. The claim was made without photographic, eyewitness or documentary evidence. It closely mirrors claims made by Russia Today, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, and other organs of Russian…

Did this woman witness a detonation or bomb attack that destroyed a theater where children were sheltering in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on March 16, 2022? No, that's not true: Her path from a sports complex shelter to the evacuation site she describes on the video would not pass the theater location, which is in the opposite direction. Russian…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flee Kyiv for a bunker in Poland? Is this evident because he posted a video filmed in front of a greenscreen with a scene of Kyiv added as a background? No, that is not a conclusive argument: There is no evidence that President Zelenskyy is in Poland, and he maintains that he is in Kyiv.…

By Uliana Malashenko and James Rosen Was U.S. citizen Brent Renaud, who was killed March 13 by Russian troops at a checkpoint near the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, an American intelligence operative? No, it is not true. The claim was made with no evidence of Renaud's affiliation with the CIA or any other U.S. spy agencies. He was an award-winning…

Did President Joe Biden's wartime ban on Russian oil imports cause the cost of gasoline to skyrocket and would completing the XL branch of the Keystone pipeline bring prices down? No, that's not true: Oil market experts and economists say the Russia ban is not the only driver of gas prices and bringing the XL section online would not guarantee…

Did NATO launch more than 10,000 air raids on Libya in 2011 with over 500,000 civilian casualties? No, that's not true: According to a NATO official, the claim is "bogus." The director of the nonprofit watchdog group Airwars says the account of 500,000 civilian casualties is "not supported by any public claim." The claim appeared as a Twitter thread published…

Does a Facebook video show Russian soldiers using a Soviet-era rocket-propelled grenade in Ukraine during the 2022 invasion? No, that's not true: Two military experts contacted by Lead Stories in March 2022 said the uniforms worn in the video don't match those of Russians fighting in Ukraine. Nick Reynolds, a research analyst for land warfare at the U.K.'s Royal United…

Does a video show U.S. paratroopers in Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine? No, that's not true: The clips in the video are at least six years out of date, excerpted from videos identified as showing U.S. military paratrooper training exercises 5,000 miles from Ukraine. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on March 7, 2022.…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wear a T-shirt with an iron cross on his chest while addressing the U.S. Congress on March 16, 2022? No, that's not true: The shirt he wore had the symbol of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the left chest. Social media posts calling attention to the cross shape of this symbol tried to associate it…

Did Russian missiles kill up to 180 foreign mercenaries at the Yavoriv military base in Ukraine on March 13, 2022? No, that's not true: There is no evidence of any nationality but Ukrainians among the dead. Although it can't be stated there were no foreign volunteers or military trainers at the base, no other country has reported casualties among its…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publish a video telling Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their weapons? No, it's not true. The video is an obviously manipulated compilation of audio and video, called a deepfake. Zelenskyy's neck is grossly out of proportion as a side-by-side comparison clearly shows. There is no corroboration of Ukrainian capitulation reported by credible American, Ukrainian, or…

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin announce on March 16, 2022, that Russia, having invaded Ukraine, had capitulated? No, that is not true: No credible independent or official source has reported such a statement by the Russian president. The video uses video from Putin's earlier speech, altered using so-called "deepfake" technology, so that it appears Putin is saying the words. A…

Does a video posted to Facebook show footage of a Javelin missile targeting a Russian military vehicle as of March 2022? No, that's not true: This video shows footage from the military shooter video game Arma 3. Lead Stories has previously refuted similar claims concerning images from this particular video game being used to depict genuine international conflicts including Russia's…

Was there an air battle over Chukchi Sea between Russian MiG-31 fighters and a U.S. RC-135 aircraft on March 12, 2022, as claimed by a title on a video posted on Facebook? No, that's not true: This clickbait headline overdramatizes a true incident that happened on May 6, 2021. This was not a "battle" involving shooting down planes as suggested…

Does a video on social media show "leaked footage of heavy war between Russia vs. Ukraine" in 2022? No, that's not true: There is a compilation of Ukrainian footage in the post, but it's from August 2014. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on March 15, 2022, with the caption "Leaked Footage of Heavy WAR Between Russia…

Does a video show a Ukrainian press conference about President Joe Biden amid Russia's invasion of the country? No, that's not true: The video is from 2020 and includes footage of a press conference with a Ukrainian lawmaker who has been described by U.S. officials as an "active Russian agent." In the video he is sharing a recording of Biden's…

Does a newsreel clip showing the shattered windshield of a car that was carrying American journalists when it came under gunfire near Irpin, Ukraine, show evidence of news media manipulation because the car appears to have a 2021 West Virginia inspection sticker? No, that's not true: While we cannot verify the specifics of the car in the file footage, it…

Did the Ukrainian Postal Service (Ukrposhta) introduce a design for a new postage stamp with the message "Russian warship, go fuck yourself!"? Yes, that's true: According to an announcement by the postal service, an online competition was held to commemorate the widely reported Ukrainian border guards' defiant stance against Russian warships in February 2022 at the beginning of the Russian…

Does a compilation video posted on Facebook show only war footage from the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? No, that's not true: Although at least one of the clips in the video shows footage of the conflict, many are unrelated to the war in Ukraine. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) published on March 9, 2022. It included the…

Do low Russian gasoline prices prove U.S. sanctions aren't hurting their economy? No, that's not true: As sanctions by the United States and other Western nations took hold in the weeks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, gas prices rose in the U.S., but the value of the ruble plunged by about 30%. That eats into Russians' purchasing power, which…