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 No, that's not true: The clips in the video are at least six years out of date, excerpted from videos identified as showing U.S. military paratrooper training exercises 5,000 miles from Ukraine.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 the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publish data confirming the triple vaccinated are weeks away from developing AIDS? No, that's not true: The data does not show immune systems being destroyed by COVID-19 vaccines but instead how vaccine efficacy wanes over time. COVID vaccines boost the ability of our bodies to fight coronavirus. They do not compromise our body's…

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…

Is the new Russian website "War on Fakes" a real and reliable fact checking website run by "experts and journalists"? We have questions. The site appeared to spring up almost overnight in early March 2022 in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and started publishing articles in several languages meant to look like fact checks, often accompanied with…