Is the new Russian website "War on Fakes" a real and reliable fact checking website run by "experts and journalists"? We have questions. The site appeared to spring up almost overnight in early March 2022 in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and started publishing articles in several languages meant to look like fact checks, often accompanied with…
Does a video show a Ukrainian press conference about President Joe Biden amid Russia's invasion of the country? No, that's not true: The video is from 2020 and includes footage of a press conference with a Ukrainian lawmaker who has been described by U.S. officials as an "active Russian agent." In the video he is sharing a recording of Biden's…
Does a compilation video posted on Facebook show only war footage from the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? No, that's not true: Although at least one of the clips in the video shows footage of the conflict, many are unrelated to the war in Ukraine. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) published on March 9, 2022. It included the…
Did a pregnant crisis actor wear bloody makeup to play the role of several different injured pregnant women in order to be photographed in the aftermath of the real bombing of a "long non-operational maternity hospital" in Mariupol, Ukraine that was being "used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and neo-Nazi Azov Battalion," as suggested in a tweet by the Russian…
Was video of a Ukrainian tank smashing through a barricade on a street taken during the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? No, that's not true: The footage of the speedy tank was recorded in 2014, during that year's conflict between the two countries. The timeliness could be implied from a Facebook post (archived here) published on March 8, 2022 during Russia's invasion…
Did Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Olena Zelenska, the president and first lady of Ukraine, sing a cover of "Endless Love" and post it on YouTube? No, that's not true: The couple seen in this video are not the Zelenskyys. The man is a member of the Florida-based band Boyce Avenue, and the woman is Connie Talbot, a British singer. The claim…
Did Nigeria send over 5,000 "military forces to Ukraine"? No, that's nothing to substatiate such a claim: The Nigerian federal government has discouraged Nigerian citizens from joining Ukrainian military forces, as of March 7, 2022. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria reports that some citizens have volunteered to join Ukrainian troops but doesn't say how many. Also, the Armed…
Did F-22 Raptors fly over Ukraine? No, that's not true: Only the U.S. owns and operates such aircraft, and the U.S. has no manned or unmanned aircraft operating over Ukrainian air space, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on February 24, 2022, under the title "Kashmir News 24/7." With 22…
Is there verifiable evidence of U.S.-run bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine? No, that's not true: The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at the U.S. Department of Defense says there are no U.S.-run bioweapons laboratories in the European nation. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland testified on March 8, 2022, that "Ukraine has biological research facilities, which ...…
Was video footage of an artillery attack of a hospital taken in Ukraine during the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? Yes, but some of the details have been muddled: The Facebook post incorrectly suggested that the incident happened in Kyiv (spelled Kiev in the post), Ukraine's capital city, and that the incident occurred later than it did. The footage actually shows a…
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