Russia And Ukraine

Did a U.S.-based cable news network publish a story stating that Russian influencer Hasbulla Magomedov died in a drone strike while fighting in Ukraine? No, that's not true: The story is a satirical fake created to look like a credible news report that makes fun of a social media sensation with a genetic condition. The claim appeared in an Instagram…

Has Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy written a book with the same title as Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," the anti-Semitic manifesto for Nazism, and did Zelenskyy present the book to an Israeli embassy? No, that's not true. Social media posts showing the cover of the purported book, entitled "Моя боротьба" ("My Struggle" in English and "Mein Kampf" in German), used altered…

Did Titanic, a German satirical monthly magazine, release a cover in October 2022 that features an illustration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sucking money and resources into his mouth? No, that's not true: The October 2022 issue of Titanic does not feature Zelenskyy and the illustration has not appeared on any of the other issues' covers. The claim appeared in…

Does a video circulating on social media show evidence that war footage of Russian attacks on Ukraine was staged? No, that's not true: It took out of context the footage of actual film sets -- one clip dating from 2013 -- recycling the falsehoods that fact-checkers had debunked during the first days of the war. The claim appeared in an…

Is it true that Google translates the Ukrainian president's last name to English as "evil rules the world"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories replicated what social media users suggested others do to get this result but found no confirmation. The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) on October 7, 2022. It said: 🇺🇦 This is creepy .... Take…

Did France's ambassador to Ukraine, Etienne de Poncins, resign his post from fear of Russian bombardments on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv? No, that's not true: "This is fake news," Ambassador de Poncins posted on his official Twitter account on October 19, 2022.A Facebook account called RT Afrique, which describes itself as a personal blog, posted the French-language claim on October…

Does a video prove its headline claim that the senior commander of the Russian army was taken prisoner? No, that's not true: A video posted on Facebook made this false claim in its clickbait headline, but the video itself did not state or prove that a senior commander of the Russian Army has been captured. The claim appeared in a…

Is this a recent photo from Kyiv, Ukraine, of a man shooting at Iranian drones from his balcony window? No, that's not true: This photo is from a Twitter account that acknowledges this tweet is an old picture and a meme. The claim appeared in a tweet on October 17, 2022 (archived here), that opened: Casual morning in Kyiv: Coffee,…

Did the U.S. deploy M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine? No, that's not true: A video with a headline that makes this claim offers no proof. A tag in its lower right-hand corner says that "Video footages are used for illustration purposes only." The claim appeared in the headline of a video posted on Facebook on October 9, 2022. The headline…

Was a refugee from Ukraine recently caught defacing a tile floor with a swastika in a UK shopping center and then made to clean it off? No, that's not true: A bystander video of the incident first surfaced online in 2018, and no evidence exists that the young man scrubbing the swastika off the floor is a Ukrainian refugee. He…