Russia And Ukraine

Did a Ukrainian wedding party pose in front of the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine and raise their hands in a "Nazi salute"? No, that's not true: The flag in the picture has been altered, and the original photo was taken at the base of a monument to Vladimir Lenin in the Russian city of Novokuznetsk in the Kemerovo Oblast in…

Does a form circulating on social media show an official report of the American military describing as unsatisfactory the level of the Ukrainian army's preparedness? No, that's not true: This form, easily downloadable from one of the U.S. Army websites, is not intended to be completed for this type of large-scale assessment -- instead, it is for counselors working with…

Did NATO's most lethal fighter jets arrive in Ukraine? No, that's not true: As a close NATO partner -- but not a member country -- in 2022 Ukraine received non-lethal defensive support in its battle against invading Russian forces, according to NATO's website. The photograph with this claim is from 1998, and is of a partially disassembled F-22 Raptor being…

Does a video show Sen. Ted Cruz telling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi she is guilty? No, that's not true: The video shows a clip of Cruz speaking about various political topics but not about Pelosi. The video's headline does not match the footage. It appears to be clickbait to draw attention to a Facebook page. The claim appeared in a…

Did Ukraine launch a counterattack against Russia by crossing its border and blowing up a Russian power plant, leaving the country in flames? No, that's not true: Although the Ukraine military has launched some cross-border missile attacks since Russia invaded the country on March 24, 2022, no Russian power plants have been destroyed by Ukraine and there is no evidence…

Did NATO send "10 thousand" troops to Ukraine? No, that's not true: There are no credible reports about that. Moreover, the social media posts that made this claim did not contain a single verifiable detail about the purported event. The story appeared in a Facebook post on August 25, 2022. The caption says: Putin is stuck: 10 thousand NATO Troops…

Did France 2 intentionally misinform its audiences about an incident in the war in Ukraine on August 10, 2022? No, that's not true: The French TV channel's report about a strike that hit buildings surrounding Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant overall correctly reflected the situation on that day, but one segment misidentified a building chimney as an unexploded missile. In…

Does a TikTok video prove that Ukrainians are staging Russian attacks? No, that's not true: The video is behind-the-scenes footage of a Ukrainian film that is described by its Facebook page as depicting "the heroic actions of the residents of Kiev during the occupation." The claim was implied in a TikTok video posted in August 2022. The video included the…

Did a suspect named "Samoylo Haidyuk" have anything to do with the recent killing of Aleksandr Dugin's daughter Darya Dugina? No, that's not true: A tweet making the accusation was using a photoshopped image of comedian Sam Hyde, the latest in a long internet trolling tradition of blaming Hyde for every assasination or shooting that goes viral online. In the…

Does a Facebook video show the Ukrainian navy destroying "13 Russian warships in the Black Sea"? No, that's not true: The clip recycles old unrelated footage of Russian -- not Ukrainian -- ships in action. More importantly, the video never discusses the 13 "destroyed" ships mentioned in the caption -- the narrator only says that those are "on high alert."…