Welcome to the first in a new series of posts from Ukraine Fact Check: a weekly roundup of fact checks and updates.
21 Oct. 2026 – “FAKE IMAGE: Wall near US Embassy in Kyiv doused with paint,” StopFake.org
Claim
A wall near the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv was doused with paint.
Fact
The image circulating online, which purportedly shows a defaced wall near the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, was created or edited using artificial intelligence. An analysis of the image by the service Sightengine indicated a 99% probability that generative AI was used.
22 Oct. 2026 – “Russian disinformation group targets James Talarico with baseless claim in AI-generated video,” PolitiFact
The Russian disinformation campaign known as Storm-1516 used artificial intelligence to create a video that impersonated a real man, and claimed it showed a former student accusing James Talarico of misconduct, researchers say.
The account that initially shared the video was created in September and is based in Romania, NewsGuard reported.
25 Oct. 2026 – “Does Poland allow border guards to shoot at migrants? Here's what the law says,” Snopes
What's True
In August 2024, Poland's then-President Andrzej Duda signed amendments to legislation expanding when border security guards could use firearms during attacks on the state border. The bill also introduced a limited exclusion from criminal liability in certain situations. Border officers could already use firearms in self-defense before the amendment became law.
What's False
The legislation was introduced in 2024, not recently, as posts suggest. It does not allow the indiscriminate use of firearms, although human rights organizations have warned it could lead to excessive force against migrants and weaken accountability for border officers. The law also does not specifically mention migrants.
26 Oct. 2026 – “Who ordered Starlink, Starshield slowdown in Ukraine? What we know,” Snopes
Snopes could not independently verify Reuters', The Telegraph's or the Wall Street Journal's reports because they relied on anonymous sources. Considering the fact that Trump and members of his cabinet publicly and repeatedly denied having given the order to slow down Starlink or Starshield in Ukraine, we cannot give this claim a rating. The Pentagon and the White House did not provide relevant comment when asked about the above news reports.
27 Oct. 2026 – “Did Melania Trump or Pope Leo XIV broker Russia-Ukraine ceasefire? What we know,” Snopes
Because the exact timeline of Trump's and Leo's interventions, and their roles in Putin's and Zelenskyy's decision-making, are unknown, we have left this claim unrated. We will update this story should we learn more.
29 Oct. 2026 – “AI mushroom cloud video shared with false claims it shows Ukraine,” Full Fact
What was claimed
A video of a large mushroom cloud shows events in Ukraine.
Our verdict
This video isn’t real and was made with AI.
30 Oct. 2026 – “Did Zelensky really spit at the feet of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden after a handshake rejection? Fact Check,” DigitEYE India
Claim: A video allegedly shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spitting at the feet of Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf after his handshake was rejected.
Conclusion: The claim is false. Zelensky did not spit at the feet of Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and the video has been shown in a way to portray a false narrative. The full version of the video shows both of them shaking hands later and the Ukrainian press has debunked this claim.
Rating: False
2 Nov. 2026 – ““Europe is Burning”: Protests in the EU and Russian Information Interventions,” SPRAVDI – Centre for Strategic Communication
The Russian Federation systematically uses protests and other issues within the European Union for its own interests. By manipulating facts, spreading fake news, and amplifying panic through extensive networks and social media platforms, Moscow seeks to convince Europeans of an alleged total chaos, the collapse of the EU, and the powerlessness of the authorities. The Centre for Strategic Communication investigated Russia’s information interventions in the media space of EU states during the large-scale autumn protests.
2 Nov. 2026 – “Midterms Watch: Russia Fabricates Accusations Against Democrats Running for the Senate in Battleground states of Texas, Maine, and Ohio,” NewsGuard
The influence operation, known as Storm-1516, produced a video depicting a purported TV news report featuring allegations of sexual assault against Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown by four former aides. Russia also pushed a fake video depicting a former student of Texas Democrat James Talarico accusing him of sexual assault in middle school, and a video of a phony TV news segment about claims that Maine Democrat Troy Jackson was accused of threatening to kill insubordinate campaign aides with an ax.
3 Nov. 2026 – “Deepfakes Of Jaishankar, Lavrov Fuel False Claims Of India-Russia Rift,” BOOM
Another video of Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is also being circulated, purportedly showing him expressing disappointment over disrespectful remarks made by a Russian minister. BOOM found both videos to be deepfakes. In the original videos, neither Lavrov nor Jaishankar made the remarks attributed to them.
5 Nov. 2026 – “"A 17th-Century Stalinist": An Overview of Russian Disinformation Campaigns (28 October – 3 November 2026),” Detector Media
Between 28 October and 3 November 2026, analysts from Detector Media documented 15 disinformation fabrications. In particular, Russian propagandists circulated false claims regarding the alleged "de-communisation" of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi in Kharkiv, an AI-generated "Ukrainian connection" to looting during protests in France, falsified petitions against the Ukrainian leadership, as well as AI manipulations and bot networks used during parliamentary elections in Serbia and Israel.