Social media posts shared hundreds of times show photos of people lobbing Molotov cocktails against a backdrop of flames. They claim the pictures show Ukrainians targeting Russian tanks invading the country. While Ukrainians have been making Molotov cocktails in response to the Russian invasion, the photos were taken as anti-government protests swept the capital Kyiv in 2014.
A video of heavily damaged buildings has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times online alongside a claim it shows the "situation in Ukraine" as a civilian disaster is growing in the country following Russia's invasion. But the video has been shared in a false context: it shows the aftermath of a cataclysmic port blast in Lebanon that levelled entire neighbourhoods in the capital Beirut in August 2020.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a photo was shared repeatedly in Facebook posts that claim it shows Ukraine's female prosecutor general, who they say has "caught the public's attention" because of her "stunning" looks. In fact, the photo shows the former attorney general of Crimea, Natalya Poklonskaya, who was appointed by Russia after it annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014. Ukraine's current chief prosecutor is Iryna Venediktova.
The viral photograph shows Anastasiia Lenna, the 2015 Miss Grand Ukraine winner, posing with an airsoft gun. She confirmed that she did not join the Ukrainian military and said she posted the staged image to inspire people.
Our ruling
A Facebook post claims it shows a Ukrainian beauty queen fighting against the Russians invading Ukraine.
That's not the case. Lenna did not join the Ukrainian military. She posted a photo in which she's posing with an airsoft gun. She said the photo was meant to inspire people.
We rate this post False.
A photo of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is circulating in Facebook posts that claim it shows him sharing a meal with soldiers resisting Russia's invasion. The posts are misleading; the photo was taken when Zelensky visited eastern Ukraine on February 17, 2022, days before Russia launched a military operation in the country.
Social media posts claim that three NATO countries will give 70 warplanes to Ukraine to aid the fight against invading Russian forces. This is misleading; while Kyiv said Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia would provide the aircraft, officials from all three countries denied that they would do so.
Verdict: False
The image dates back to at least 2016. There is no evidence it was taken in Ukraine.
“Maria Zakharova's claim that Ukraine started this war is false. The Russian Federation illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, sparking broad international condemnation. On February 21, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine from the north, northeast, and from the Crimean Peninsula in the south, initiating a full-scale interstate war between Russia and Ukraine”.
News reports, testimonies of citizens-turned-fighters, and a swift global response all fly in the face of baseless claims that Russia's war on Ukraine is "staged."
"There is little to refute directly, other than to note that thousands or millions of people would have to be in on any conspiracy to fake a war, and like the 9/11 attacks (which some people also deny) there is substantial video footage of attacks on Ukrainian cities, Russian invading forces, and throngs of refugees," Radnitz said.
Nevertheless, he added, "a true believer will persist in denying all that evidence, something that is easier to do when the conflict is geographically distant and they do not personally know anyone directly affected by it."
With a war raging, the world responding and both sides of the conflict experiencing its effects, the claim that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is "scripted and staged" holds no merit. We rate it Pants on Fire!
The clip does not show a Ukrainian woman teaching people how to drive an abandoned Russian armored carrier amid the war.
The TikToker is a Russian auto-blogger named Nastya Tuman and the video is from February 2021.
The Facebook video is a compilation of several clips she shared on her TikTok page on Feb. 16, 2021.
Tuman speaks Russian throughout the videos and excitedly describes the vehicle, saying it has 8-wheel drive, a seating shooter and a hatch for the driver-mechanic. She also discusses how to start it, instructing viewers on how to turn it on and shift into gear.
The clip was made by a Russian woman and is from February 2021. It is unrelated to the current conflict in Ukraine. We rate posts claiming otherwise False.