Russia And Ukraine

Have 80,000 Ukrainian troops totally blockaded Russian invasion forces fighting in Ukraine's semi-occupied eastern Donetsk region? No, that's not true: The post making the claim in its caption does not mention a blockade in an accompanying video. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Donetsk on December 20, 2022, and did not say his forces had surrounded the Russian invaders. Keyword searches…

Did Leonel Messi, an Argentinian football star who led his national team to the 2022 World Cup, swear at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Instagram, demanding that the Ukrainian leader "take [his] people and get out of Europe" and displaying a sign with profanity directed at Zelenskyy? No, that's not true. The image was digitally altered, and Messi did not…

Did 80,000 Polish troops besiege Kaliningrad, Russia? No, that's not true: The video making this claim in its headline does not mention 80,000 Polish troops besieging Kaliningrad, Russia, in its recorded content. There have also been no news reports of this purported event. The claim appeared on Facebook on December 17, 2022. The caption read: Red Alert in Kremlin- 80,000…

The year is almost over, so it is good to look back. First, the numbers, as of December 15, 2022. This year we have published 1,555 fact checks in English (so far ...) 283 fact checks about COVID misinformation; 244 debunks of Russian propaganda and false claims about the invasion of Ukraine; 140 debunks of false claims about election fraud,…

Does a video show the Russian government evacuating 800,000 people from the "island" of Crimea? No, that's not true: Russian officials said in media reports and on social media sites that no evacuations have occurred in Crimea. Also, Crimea is a peninsula, not an island. The claim appeared on Facebook on November 7, 2022, under the title "It's all over-…

Was a man from the Ukrainian city of Odesa sent to prison for 15 years for hanging up the Russian flag? No, that's not true: The unnamed person in question was found guilty of treason, collaboration with Russian forces and kidnapping. The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) posted on December 1, 2022. It said: An Odessa man was…

Did graffiti showing Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy eating money appear in the capital of France during November 2022? No, that's not true: Neither local authorities nor the personnel of a store located near the supposed graffiti's site saw it. Journalists sent on location did not find any signs of the graffiti. The absence of other images of the scene suggests…

Do photos circulating on social media show a recently captured Ukrainian POW with a swastika tattoo on his back? No, that's not true: These are seven-year-old images, taken during fighting in 2015 with armed, Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. A 2015 video interview with an individual who closely resembles the man in these photos established that he is…

Are COVID-19 PCR tests "linked to human cloning"? No, that's not true. There is no evidence confirming that human cloning ever occurred. A study cited in a video making the claim never discussed PCR tests used during the pandemic because the study was published years before the world learned about COVID-19. The story originated from an episode of the Stew…

Are these staged photos taken from the phone of an employee of the Ukrainian CIPSO (Center for Information and Psychological Operations) showing fake victims, proving the war in Ukraine is staged? No, that's not true: The photos were taken in 2016 during a first-aid training exercise for the Ukrainian organization TacCat First Aid. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, several…