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.
False claims that Germany sent all of its power generators to Ukraine during the city's worst blackout since World War II are unfounded.
The International Legion firmly denied any role in the appearance of the leaflets. Their limited distribution - confined to a single district of Berlin - points to a staged provocation designed to discredit Ukraine and its armed forces. [...] Notably, the leaflets appeared only in a single Berlin district and carried an overtly propagandistic message - an appeal to a 'sense of revenge.' [...] The press service of the International Legion of Defence of Ukraine told StopFake it had no connection to the creation, distribution, or promotion of the leaflets.
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.
Propagandists distorted the content of the publication. In fact, the columnist expressed his personal opinion on why such a move would be appropriate from a political point of view.
Fake.
Context: The image was a misleadingly edited screenshot of an article that ran in the New York Post. The real headline of that article was, "Meet the tough women leaders taking on Vladimir Putin."
What was claimed:
A photo shows President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently wearing a suit to meet WEF founder Klaus Schwab because he is his "actual boss", amid criticism Mr Zelenskyy received for not wearing one to meet President Trump.
Our verdict:
This photo shows the two men in suits in 2020, before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, after which President Zelenskyy stopped wearing suits publicly.
Claim: Volodymyr Zelenskyy wore a suit while meeting Emmanuel Macron and Klaus Schwab, but opted for a non-formal sweatshirt during his visit to the Oval Office.
Fact: Photos of Zelenskyy with Macron and Schwab were taken prior to the Russian invasion of February 2022.
Russia's war against Ukraine is not only a military confrontation, but Moscow is also deliberately targetting the Ukrainian president with disinformation and narratives that seek to discredit him. In early February 2025, posts on social media falsely claimed that Volodymyr Zelensky had purchased a property known as the Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgaden in the southern German state of Bavaria. However, the site -- which was closely associated with the Nazis during World War II and is a popular tourist destination even today -- is still owned by the state authorities. Furthermore, the false claims seem to have originated from a Russian disinformation network.
Russian disinformation campaigns have sought to manipulate Germany's upcoming general election. How successful have they been, and what's the German government doing about this interference?