Russia And Ukraine

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…

Does a Stew Peters Show video prove mainstream media and the U.S. government lie about the war in Ukraine? No, that's not true: The video by the radio and TV host repeats debunked claims and misattributes information, often embracing Kremlin talking points. The claims appeared in a Facebook post on April 7, 2022, under the translated-from-Russian title "LIE Mode:" It…

Did Google remove a blur on publicly available satellite maps that had previously obscured details of Russian military installations or high-security areas? Not according to Google: Claims posted on Twitter saying that the company had unblurred sensitive satellite imagery were countered by the official @GoogleMaps Twitter account, which said no blurring changes had been made to the satellite imagery in…

Does a video on social media show the Russian warship Moskva -- the English-letter spelling of the Russian term for "Moscow"-- being hit by a missile before later sinking in the Black Sea? No, that's not true: The 10-second clip comes from a longer video posted in 2013, showing the Norwegian military testing a Naval Strike Missile off the coast…

Did the BBC release a video suggesting Ukraine has spread fake news about a train station attack in the country? No, that's not true: The BBC stated that the video was fake. The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) on April 13, 2022. The tweet contained a video attributed to the BBC. It reads: The BBC is distributing a…

Did something big, an asteroid or a missile, crash into the moon or explode and blow right through it -- and was this event caught on camera in both Texas and California as it happened? No, none of that's true: These two videos were originally posted on TikTok and YouTube in 2020 and 2021 by VFX (visual effects) hobbyist Greg…

Did Ukrainian soldiers prepare a poseable dummy with tape to use in the production of war propaganda, to fabricate a death with a fake corpse in order to "blame Putin"? No, that's not true: This behind-the-scenes video shows a prop dummy being prepared for a scene that would show a human figure falling from a tall building. After the clip…

Is the Russian Consulate in Montreal located on "Avenue Zelensky" as of March 31, 2022? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the city of Montreal tells Lead Stories, "This is misinformation." The sign in the image of this post was fake; it was featured in a satirical show based in Quebec on March 10, 2022. The claim appeared in…

Does a video show a military singing group getting arrested in St. Petersburg, Russia amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022? No, that's not true: The video is from 2015 and shows the Russian Army choir, a well-known singing group, in a video that appeared to be a stunt to promote the James Bond movie "Spectre." The claim appeared…

Did Russians start digging graves for all the soldiers who have died during the Russian invasion of Ukraine? No, that's not true: This 2021 video of already-dug graves predates the invasion. The administrator of the cemetery where these graves are located told a Russian news outlet that they dig many graves in the fall because the ground becomes too hard…