War

By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that a "classified" Azov document proves that over two-thirds of the Mariupol population support Russia? No, that's not true: The link to the English-language article by the state-controlled Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) did not contain any evidence to support the claim. Multiple discrepancies cast doubts on the authenticity of the shared document allegedly…

Does a photograph in a June 2022 news story show a destroyed Russian landing craft? No, that's not true: The photo shows a vessel that was hit by a missile off the coast of Ukraine back in February 2022. The photograph appeared in a YouTube post (archived here) published by Strong News on June 3, 2022. Titled "Ukrainian Forces Destroyed…

By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that Finland transferred tanks to the Russian border at the beginning of May 2022? No, it's not true: A video showing trains carrying military equipment captured the Finnish army heading to a scheduled military exercise in the opposite direction. One of the first English-language posts claiming that the Finnish army moved dangerously close to…

By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that Warsaw is going to send troops to the western parts of Ukraine to repossess the lands Poland used to own in the distant past? No, it's not true. Claims about the allegedly planned Polish invasion of Ukraine started to spread on social media on April 28, 2022, following the statement made by Sergei…

Did the United Kingdom send warships to the Black Sea to break Russia's grain blockade in Ukraine during the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? No, that's not true: Although there have been reports that such a move was supported by the United Kingdom in principle, there is no trustworthy independent reporting that the Royal Navy had, by May 27, 2022, sent warships…

By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that the Ukrainian president's daughter, Oleksandra Zelenska, called her father, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a "Nazi" and a "murderer"? No, it's not true: The image of a crying woman that circulated on social media in spring 2022 is a screenshot from a 5-year-old video of another Russian-speaking woman who was caught on camera crying about not…

Is it true that "not one real video has surfaced" from the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? No, that's not true: There is an abundance of footage showing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on May 20, 2022. The post, which contained several claims and featured images of figures from the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)…

Did the Canadian sniper known by the pseudonym Wali claim that a fraudulent scheme was organized in Ukraine to steal U.S. military aid? No, that's not true: In a conversation with a journalist from the Canadian edition of La Presse, which the authors of the claim refer to, Wali does not say a word about theft. The number of virtually…

Did Ukrainian soldiers turn back a Russian incursion with paintball guns? Did Reuters represent a photo of soldiers training with paintball gear as an actual military conflict? No, that's not true: The photo originally included in a May 16, 2022, article was captioned to reflect that it showed a training simulation in Sumy, Ukraine, on April 15, 2022. This caption…

Did "US General Eric Olson" surrender with other troops in at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine? No, that's not true: The image of a line of soldiers used in a post is from April 14, 2022, which was weeks before the Ukrainian military announced in May 2022 that Ukrainian forced had completed their "combat mission" in Mariupol, and…

Was the Russian ruble named the "world's best-performing currency" in May 2022? Yes, but that claim requires significant context: Bloomberg did publish an article on May 11, 2022, stating that the ruble was the "year's best performing currency." However, the Bloomberg article also provided the necessary information to clarify the claim, explaining that the ruble appears much stronger theoretically than…

Did Polish armed forces write a letter in April 2022 announcing a plan to send "airborne units" to Ukraine? No, that's not true: The Armed Forces General Command of Poland debunked the claim. There are also no other credible reports of such an order. The claim appeared in this tweet (archived here) posted on May 2, 2022. The tweet included…

Did a NATO Patriot missile attack hit Russian troops near the Ukraine border? No, that's not true: A NATO official confirmed there was not any kind of NATO attack on Russian troops in late April 2022. The Patriot is used by more than 17 nations as part of defensive -- not offensive -- military measures. It is the U.S. Army's…

Did Ukrainian troops attack a Russian armored vehicle convoy with dozens of "U.K.-sent tanks"? No, that's not true: The video posted, which is filled with footage of tanks, has absolutely no footage of Ukrainian troops attacking a Russian convoy. The U.K. did not send tanks to Ukraine but to Poland so that Poland could send older Soviet-era T-72 tanks to…

Did a Ukrainian drone drop dozens of bombs and destroy 530 Russian tanks on May 4, 2022? No, that's not true: There were no reports of such an attack, and a video with the claim features footage of totally unrelated, earlier events. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on May 3, 2022. The post features a video of war…

Was the "Ghost of Kyiv" identified after dying in battle? No, that's not true: The Ghost of Kyiv is not a real person. The mythical aviator "embodies the collective spirit of" Ukrainian pilots, according to the Twitter account of the Ukrainian air force. The Ghost of Kyiv has been both a rallying point and a source of pride for the…

Did American food processing facilities mysteriously and suspiciously begin to catch fire after President Joe Biden predicted that there could be real food shortages due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine? No, that's not true: Several incidents on a list of food processing facilities where incidents have occurred predate Biden's comments on food shortages and also predate Russia's invasion. Some…

Do social media posts show Russian agents arresting neo-Nazis for an assassination plot and then displaying their confiscated property? Maybe, it's not clear what the images show: A video of the purported raid was released by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) that included still images of what its agents allegedly found. The "evidence" displayed was staged in such a way…

Did Finland vote to join NATO? No, that's not true: The Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Lead Stories that such a decision has not been made yet. Finland and Sweden plan to submit their NATO applications in May 2022, according to The Guardian, but Finnish parliamentary groups had not officially voted on this issue at the time of writing.…

Did Great Britain threaten to use nuclear weapons against Russia during the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? No, that's not true: A spokesperson at the press office of No. 10 Downing Street in London -- the office of U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson -- told Lead Stories that the claim was not true at the time of writing. The claim, which may…