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Vladimir Putin repeats false claim of genocide in Ukraine

Despite multiple claims of a Ukrainian genocide against ethnic Russians, there is no evidence to support it.

International bodies that include Russian representatives report that civilian deaths have plummeted since 2014.

Russia's ambassador to the U.S. relied on misleading and outdated evidence to back the claim.

Our ruling
Putin said ethnic Russians in Ukraine face genocide.

His ambassador provided misleading evidence, and international observers found no activities to support the claim. Civilian deaths have plummeted to less than 1% of what they were in 2014.

We rate this False.

There are no US-run biolabs in Ukraine, contrary to social media posts

There are no U.S.-run biological weapons labs operating in Ukraine.

The U.S. Defense Department and the Ukraine Ministry of Health have had a partnership since 2005 to improve public health laboratories and prevent the threat of outbreaks of infectious diseases.

That effort is part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which began in 1991 to reduce the threat of existing weapons of mass destruction programs in former Soviet Republics.

Our ruling
A social media user tweeted that Russia was targeting U.S.-run biolabs in its invasion of Ukraine. That account was soon suspended by Twitter.

There are no U.S.-run biolabs in Ukraine. The country is one of many former Soviet Union republics, and other countries, partnering with the Defense Department as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. It's the latest claim in a series of disinformation efforts by the Russians, an expert told PolitiFact.

While the U.S. may provide funding to upgrade or build labs in other countries, the labs are run by the partnering nations and the program's goal is to prevent biological threats, not create them. We rate this claim False.

Ukraine crisis: A low-cost disinformation campaign aids Putin’s playbook

How then can the well-oiled Russian machine produce such "low-cost" disinformation? "Simply because, for the moment, the Russian authorities do not need to do better." [...]

What’s more, it’s not so much the quality as the quantity of disinformation that matters. "The goal is to create so many different – and sometimes even contradictory – versions of what is happening at the border that no one can really distinguish the true from the false anymore."