Russia And Ukraine And Video

Have 80,000 Ukrainian troops totally blockaded Russian invasion forces fighting in Ukraine's semi-occupied eastern Donetsk region? No, that's not true: The post making the claim in its caption does not mention a blockade in an accompanying video. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Donetsk on December 20, 2022, and did not say his forces had surrounded the Russian invaders. Keyword searches…

Did 80,000 Polish troops besiege Kaliningrad, Russia? No, that's not true: The video making this claim in its headline does not mention 80,000 Polish troops besieging Kaliningrad, Russia, in its recorded content. There have also been no news reports of this purported event. The claim appeared on Facebook on December 17, 2022. The caption read: Red Alert in Kremlin- 80,000…

The year is almost over, so it is good to look back. First, the numbers, as of December 15, 2022. This year we have published 1,555 fact checks in English (so far ...) 283 fact checks about COVID misinformation; 244 debunks of Russian propaganda and false claims about the invasion of Ukraine; 140 debunks of false claims about election fraud,…

Does a video show the Russian government evacuating 800,000 people from the "island" of Crimea? No, that's not true: Russian officials said in media reports and on social media sites that no evacuations have occurred in Crimea. Also, Crimea is a peninsula, not an island. The claim appeared on Facebook on November 7, 2022, under the title "It's all over-…

Do photos circulating on social media show a recently captured Ukrainian POW with a swastika tattoo on his back? No, that's not true: These are seven-year-old images, taken during fighting in 2015 with armed, Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. A 2015 video interview with an individual who closely resembles the man in these photos established that he is…

Are COVID-19 PCR tests "linked to human cloning"? No, that's not true. There is no evidence confirming that human cloning ever occurred. A study cited in a video making the claim never discussed PCR tests used during the pandemic because the study was published years before the world learned about COVID-19. The story originated from an episode of the Stew…

Does a trident superimposed on the gold and blue Ukrainian flag represent membership in, or support for, the Nazi political movement? No, that's not true: The trident is the national symbol of Ukraine that is often added to the country's flag. The claim appeared in an Instagram post from November 25, 2022, under the title "Here I am driving to…

Does a viral video show Al Jazeera footage of "Nazi Ukrainians" "arrested in Qatar after they drew swastikas on football posters"? No, that's not true: The network denied that it had anything to do with the clip using its logo. More importantly, the video did not contain shots of the scene with the purportedly existing posters or provide any verifiable…

Is a video montage showing before and after photos of Ukrainian buildings damaged by war -- but restored to their original appearance -- an example of propagandists manipulating photos? No, that's not true: Basic image searching independently verifies damage at some of these locations, photographed and videotaped from multiple angles. There is no evidence the war photos are inauthentic. The…

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…