Russia And Ukraine

Did a huge army of one million Ukrainian special forces launch an all-out attack from the north? No, that's not true: Such an attack would be impossible. Ukraine's entire army is estimated to have only around 200,000 active-duty troops and some 900,000 reservists, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Video used in conjunction with the false statement is flagged…

Is it true that Ukraine's Sapphire rescue ship "broke into" Crimea in July 2022? No, that's not true: Russian forces captured the vessel near Snake Island in the Black Sea and brought it to the annexed peninsula months earlier. In April 2022, the rescue ship was returned to Ukraine, a developmeht that was confirmed by both Moscow and Kyiv. The…

Did Belarus declare war on Poland and does this video prove it? No, that's not true: Belarus has not declared war on its much more populous western neighbor as of July 12, 2022, and this video does not offer any proof of an action that would instantly attract international news coverage. A Nato spokesman said the claim is false and…

By Uliana Malashenko Does a video of Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russian army prove that their Ukrainian counterparts were killing civilians in Rubizhne, a town in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, in spring 2022? No, that's not true: The words of the POWs are not supported by any visual evidence or documents. Not a single reputable source in…

Does a Facebook video published in spring 2022 show Russian and Ukrainian soldiers hugging each other? No, that's not true: One of the men wears civilian clothes, and the footage does not contain any identifying information associated with the Ukrainian military. Moreover, the audio indicates that the two knew each other before the war, which explains why they expressed visible…

Does this video prove that 30 British aircraft intercepted Russia's Black Sea fleet? No, that's not true: The video shows a compilation of file photos, some not even of British aircraft, with subtitles. At least one shows an obsolete aircraft. Some of the subtitles do not make sense in terms of a military operation such as: "an early warning aircraft…

Was a pedophile who molested a 2-year-old girl whipped to death by Eddie Lavelle Wilson, a man who "loves the child dearly"? No, that's not true: These stills were taken from a real video that was filmed in the area around Kommunar in eastern Ukraine and widely distributed in 2016. The video shows a man taped to a post who…

Does this video prove the United States is sending fighter jets to help Ukraine fight Russia? No, that's not true: U.S. Air Force Capt. M. Ryan Goss said the video doesn't show U.S. fighter jets, and the video was published on an Egyptian news website in 2016. The claim appeared in a Facebook video on June 30, 2022, under the…

Was Moscow blown up by rockets? No, that's not true: Video posted in support of the claim actually shows footage from a Russian airstrike on a mall in central Ukraine. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on June 28, 2022. It includes a roughly 12-minute video and a caption that reads: KREMLIN Electricity is Under Attack! PUTIN Panics When…

Did a Russian missile do a complete U-turn and return to strike the troops who fired it? No, that's not true: This missile launch was a failure, but the missile did not return precisely to the site of its launch. It exploded in a field nearby. The angle of one video makes it appear that the missile doubled back to…