The claim of a broken NATO promise does not stand up to scrutiny. NATO never adopted any policy promising not to expand, and it could not have done so without formal consensus among its members - a fact of which the Soviets were fully aware.
No treaty or official commitment exists, and it is not even clear that such assurances were ever made or discussed. The Soviet leader himself later stated that all agreed terms were fully honored by NATO.
However, while the West's indecisive and dithering approach to the Ukrainian crisis may certainly warrant criticism, especially from the standpoint of the Ukrainians, there are ample grounds on which to contest the narrative that NATO has reneged on any of its formal obligations towards Russia under international law or provoked Russia by breaking a "gentleman's agreement" entered into with the Russian state.
Three decades after the end of the Cold War, one of Russia's most persistent falsehoods is gaining new traction in Western debate: the claim that NATO's eastward expansion provoked Russia's war against Ukraine.
Verdict: False Ukraine did not 'start' this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives.
A video of White House Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre was manipulated with fake audio to make it sound like she said Ukraine, U.S. fought side-by-side in WWII.
The Soviet Union did not defeat Nazi Germany alone: after July 1941 it was part of the allies and benefited of the alliance support in particular the lend-lease program.
The Verdict False
This was based on a mistranslation. Ulf Kristersson said the opposite: that there was no reason for having nuclear weapons in Sweden in peacetime.
Iterations of the collage have been online since at least 2015 and appear to be screenshots of a video that shows pro-Russian forces taking control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve. It's unrelated to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The photos are real, but they're outdated and do not appear to have been taken in Mariupol. The social media posts were miscaptioned.
Our ruling
A collage shared online claims to show Russian forces replacing the Ukrainian flag with the Soviet Flag in Mariupol in 2022.
Iterations of the collage have been online since at least 2015 and appear to feature screenshots of a video that shows pro-Russian forces taking control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve.
It's unrelated to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
We rate this False.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, thousands of images showing Russian soldiers and vehicles have emerged online. Some of these images shocked viewers when they saw the flag of the Soviet Union waving on some Russian military equipment. For residents of Ukraine, a former part of the Soviet Union, the flag may represent "an expression of a desire to repress them", according to a post-Soviet politics specialist who spoke to the FRANCE 24 Observers team.
No legal agreement prohibits NATO from expanding eastward.
Russians have argued that comments made by U.S. and other Western leaders during the negotiations over the reunification of Germany constituted a promise that NATO would not extend beyond then-East Germany. Those allegations have sparked decades of debate amongst those involved in the events, and scholars studying them.
Even scholars who say they believe western powers did offer the Soviet Union assurances about NATO expansion say Owens' claim is misleading.
Our ruling
Owens said, "NATO (under direction from the United States) is violating previous agreements and expanding eastward."
There is an ongoing historical debate over comments that Western leaders, including Baker, made during post-Cold War negotiations, and whether what they said amounted to assurances that NATO would refrain from welcoming in countries closer to modern-day Russia.
But NATO as an organization made no such pledge, and the formal agreement signed at the end of those negotiations said nothing about the alliance not expanding eastward.
We rate this claim Mostly False.