Russia Ukraine War

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin say at a "military press conference in Russia" that the U.S. was planning to launch a second pandemic "aimed at disrupting the 2024 election" domestically? No, that's not true: Neither a viral AI-generated article making the claim nor earlier pieces speculating about it offered any proof that Putin actually said that. Lead Stories searched both…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's wife, Olena Zelenska, buy a Bugatti sports car for almost 4.5 million euros in June 2024? No, that's not true: The invoice supposedly proving the claim contained multiple errors. Both Bugatti and Bugatti's Paris-based dealership denied the authenticity of the document shared online and a video supposedly showing a Bugatti employee confirming the claim appears…

Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni say, "If Russia does not agree to the terms of the peace summit, we will force it to surrender"? No, that's not true: The comments attributed to her come from a falsified Russian translation of what she said in English at the Ukraine Peace Summit held in Switzerland in June 2024. While Meloni has…

Did 78-year-old Walter Jones never return home after driving out with his dog Cami? No, that's not true: The man in a photo on a social media post is not Walter Jones but the chief surgeon of a veterinary hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine. The false narrative is part of a scam that inspires concerned people to share a post which…

Did China's Defense Ministry warn it would "intervene militarily" if the United States or NATO attacked Russia? No, that's not true: No credible evidence supports this claim. Additionally, there are no official statements or credible reports from the Chinese government or its Defense Ministry to support this assertion. Nor is there any report of such a statement in China Daily,…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy buy the luxury Vuni Palace Hotel in Cyprus? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence that the Ukrainian leader bought the resort on the northern coast of the island nation. In an online statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Cyprus called the claim "Russian propaganda" and "yet another lie aimed at discrediting Ukraine and…

Does a 50-second video show authentic remarks by U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller discussing "military targets" in the Russian city of Belgorod, with "virtually no civilians left" in that city? No, that's not true: The video mixes video of different briefings, during which Miller made no such remarks. The words falsely attributed to him in the video were AI-generated.…

Is the wife of the suspect in the attempted assassination of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico a Ukrainian refugee? No, that's not true: The head of the country's national police said that such speculations on social media are "definitely a hoax." Lead Stories found no credible news reporting corroborating the claim. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on…

Did White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre field a question on the topic of alleged Ukrainian manifestations of Nazism from a reporter during a press briefing? No, that's not true on both counts: The reporter did not ask this question, and Jean-Pierre did not respond to such a question. An AI-generated voiceover has been added to authentic video footage from…

Did "Spetznas" snipers fatally shoot the World Economic Forum's head of the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chains, Kiva Allgood, on April 26, 2024? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence that this happened. In addition, the website where this claim appeared has a record of publishing fabricated content. The claim appeared in an article published by…