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Social media posts share false claim about ‘NATO-supplied fighter jets arriving in Ukraine’

A claim that NATO has sent fighter jets to Ukraine to help the country fight invading Russian forces was shared by multiple social media posts in August 2022. The claim, however, is false. While there was a proposal in March to supply Ukraine with Soviet-era jets through a US air base, Washington rejected the idea over fears it could escalate the conflict. Separately, NATO's press office told AFP that the claim was "not accurate".

Despite Putin’s claim, Russia has lost plenty in Ukraine invasion

Russia has lost as many as 25,000 soldiers in its invasion of Ukraine, with tens of thousands more injured, according to estimates from U.K. and U.S. officials.

Russia's economy will contract as much as 6% this year mostly because of international sanctions, the country's central bank predicted.

Thousands of educated professionals have fled the nation after the war began, according to news reports.

Our ruling
Putin stated that Russia has lost nothing since the country invaded neighboring Ukraine in February.

Russia has suffered many losses. As many as 25,000 Russian soldiers are estimated to have died. Indicators from within Russia show the Russian economy has been damaged by international sanctions resulting from the war. And experts say thousands of Russians from many professional backgrounds, including tech and academia, have fled the nation.

We rate Putin's claim False.

Debunking claims that Ukraine is staging Russian war crimes – Truth or Fake

A video from a film production in Ukraine has been widely shared on social media. Pro-Kremlin users falsely claim the video is evidence that Ukraine is staging Russian atrocities. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Your guide to geolocating photos and videos posted online

Determining whether a scene actually took place where a social media user said it did - also known as geolocation - has become a major part of verifying social media posts. In this article, we take a look at some essential geolocation tools and walk you through a few case studies from the FRANCE 24 Observers team.

Biden didn’t threaten to kill a former Ukrainian president

A phone call recording from 2016 between then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was leaked in 2020, but as it recirculates in 2022, it's wrongly being used to claim Biden threatened to kill the former head of state.

Biden, among other presidents, has used the term "physical security" regularly. In August, for example, Biden talked in a speech to the Democratic National Committee about the United States' need to plan its direction wisely to ensure "economic, political and physical security." As in the leaked phone call, Biden, speaking June 30 at a press conference in Madrid after a NATO summit, tied funding from the U.S. to aid Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion to the country's physical security.

"But for it to end, they have to be in a position where … the Ukrainians have all that they can reasonably expect, we can reasonably expect to get to them, in order to … provide for their physical security and their defenses," he said.

We rate claims Biden threatened to assassinate a former Ukrainian president Pants on Fire!

Fake: Ukraine Issues Maps Without Temporarily Occupied Territories And Western Regions

The map featured in the video is falsified. StopFake did not find the images shown in the video in the original historical map of Ukraine published by the Kartohrafiya publishing house. StopFake visited the Kartohrafiya publishing shop, where the consultant assured that the new edition is no different from last year's. After reviewing the latest edition of the mentioned outline map, it is clear that the video circulating online is fake. In the original outline map, which is issued under ISBN 978-966-946-460-6, StopFake did not find the images shown in the video, or those on which the Ukrainian state border is drawn incorrectly.

Fake: Ukraine Shells Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

The Ukrainian Armed Forces did not shell the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the city of Enerhodar. An analysis of missile trajectories and the nature of the damage confirms that strikes were carried out from the territories controlled by Russian occupation troops. The Russian propaganda video shows footage of another facility, the Zaporizhzhia thermal power station, which is about 7 kilometres away from the nuclear facility and which stopped operating back in May due to a shortage of coal.