War

Does a video prove that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy bought a hotel in Courchevel, France, for 88 million euros ($93 million) in November 2024? No, that's not true: The video was based on a screenshot of a fake website mimicking the online page of a currently closed hotel. The current owner of the hotel described the posts sharing the video…

Did Adm. Rob Bauer, who heads NATO's Military Committee, say the group would launch pre-emptive strikes on Russia in the event of war? No, that's not true: In his remarks at a conference in Brussels, Bauer never mentioned the possibility of NATO attacking Russia pre-emptively. In fact, he stressed Russia would have to hit NATO targets first before the Alliance…

Does a video show members of the European Parliament giving a standing ovation to the U.S. decision to permit Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia with U.S.-supplied weapons? No, that's not true: The post's caption mislabels the content of a video shared online. The video showed members of the EU parliament clapping before and after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's address…

Does a photograph posted on X genuinely show the coffins of 18 British Special Forces being returned after they were killed in Ukraine? No, that's not true: The photo predates the Russia-Ukraine war by over a decade. It was taken in 2006 and shows the coffins of 14 servicemen killed in an air crash in Afghanistan while aboard an RAF…

Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni say Italy opposes President Joe Biden's policy change that permits Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike deep into Russia? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available recording or transcript of Meloni expressing Italian opposition to the change. During the Group of 20 summit on November 18 and 19, 2024, shortly…

Did Vladimir Putin say in a televised address on November 17, 2024, that Russia could use nuclear weapons if Ukraine launches "a mass missile" to strike targets inside Russia? No, that's not true: A viral post on X reused footage from almost two months before November 2024, when reports said the Biden administration was removing a long-standing ban on the…

Does a video show actor Cillian Murphy waving a Palestinian flag on the street? No, that's not true: The person waving the flag in the video is Derek Brennan, who runs tours of locations of Murphy's Netflix show "Peaky Blinders" in Birmingham, England. The X account that posted the video later stated that the person in the video is Brennan,…

Did NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte publicly say that "if Trump surrenders Ukraine to Putin, he will personally expel the United States from the alliance"? No, that's not true: A NATO spokesperson described the claim as "bogus." The rumor was promoted by a Russian propaganda website and anonymous pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X…

Did South Korea announce it will deploy troops in Ukraine to engage in active combat against North Korean troops supporting Russia? No, that's not true: On October 30, 2024, neither U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin nor his South Korean counterpart Kim Yong-hyun said anything about it during a joint press conference about the potential engagement of North Korean troops…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy officially declare war on Russia's allies, Iran and North Korea? No, that's not true: Despite what some social media posts are saying, as of this writing neither Ukrainian government sites, the Iranian Embassy in Ukraine nor news media have mentioned any such declaration of war. In public speeches Zelenskyy has described Iran and North Korea's…

Does a photo in an online article prove that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy bought Hitler's Mercedes during his 2024 trip to the United States? No, that's not true: The article's image of the vehicle, supposedly in front of the Ukrainian presidential administration building, was digitally manipulated. The picture of this antique car has been online since 2018 and was first…

Does a viral video show Israeli troops being attacked by Hezbollah in Lebanon? No, that's not true: The same footage has been online since 2017. The video's earliest version showed a logo of a Syrian rebel group. It was published with explicit references to the situation in Syria. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known…

Does a viral video show an Israeli tank destroyed "by the resistance's fire" in Lebanon in October 2024? No, that's not true: The claim recycled footage of a Russian tank in Ukraine that emerged on social media nearly a year before the start of Israel's September 30, 2024, ground operation in Lebanon. Ukrainian media initially posted the footage on October…

Does a video circulating on social media show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu running to a bunker to take shelter from an Iranian missile attack? No, that's not true: The video was posted to Netanyahu's Twitter account in December 2021, when there were no Iranian missile strikes on Israel. It shows Netanyahu hurrying to a vote in the Israeli parliament,…

Did an authentic video on Facebook show F-16 fighter jets striking Russian President Vladimir Putin's cruise ship while it was carrying Korean shells? No, that's not true: The clip was published by an account self-described as that of a gaming video creator. The account has posted hundreds of similar videos on Facebook that also include signs of having been created…

Does a photo show Moscow "dark due to severe electricity shortage" in August 2024? No, that's not true: The image of the Kremlin without its lights on is from 2014 and was taken for a World Wildlife Fund event. The photo does not show Moscow in 2024 amid the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. There are no reports of electricity…

Does an image of a post-blast orange cloud confirm that the Ukrainian Armed Forces used chemical weapons during their August 2024 incursion into Russia's Kursk region? No, that's not true: The picture shared on social media was taken in Iraq in 2015. It's unrelated to Ukraine's surprise cross-border attack on Russian territory. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Does a viral picture prove that U.S. citizens participated in Ukraine's incursion into the territory of Russia in August 2024? No, that's not true: The photo predates the attack by roughly two years. It has been online since the fall of 2022. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, by @aussiecossack on August…

Did a viral video show authentic property records proving that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife bought an Italian villa from singer Sting for 75 million euros? No, that's not true: A screenshot of what looked like a document allegedly confirming the transaction was forged. When Lead Stories accessed the Italian property records database, authentic documents contained no traces…

Did Kamala Harris' simplistic explanations of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on a podcast demonstrate she has a limited understanding of geopolitics? No, that's not true: This claim leaves out key context. Her answer was in response to the host, who asked Harris to explain the conflict in "layman's terms." Layman's terms is defined as "simple language that anyone can understand,"…