The document circulating online is fake. This is evidenced by the many errors in the so-called passport, in particular, the misspelled Hebrew name, surname, nationality and birth place of Olena Zelenska, as well as the validity period of the document.
An old video of a smoking field of debris has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in Chinese-language social media posts that falsely claim it shows Iranian military aid for Russia blown up by Israel in March 2023. But there is no evidence the event described in the posts actually occurred. The video was in fact shared by an Afghan official in the aftermath of a massive port fire in the country in February 2021.
The video showed footage from the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and was posted on the 20th anniversary of the invasion.
Images of a Ukrainian soldier on the frontline wearing what seems to be an Islamic State (IS) group badge on his arm have taken the internet by storm. Some users and media outlets claim this is evidence of links between the terrorist group and Ukraine. The soldier himself says differently. We tell you what we know so far in this edition of Truth or Fake, with Vedika Bahl.
The image in the widespread photo is from a 6-year-old video that showed an old railway in Ohio. It had already been fixed by the time the Feb. 3 derailment happened in East Palestine.
The Biden-Harris administration announced plans to help railway infrastructure in Ohio, including managing $4 billion to improve rail safety.
A Facebook post said a photo of a dilapidated railroad track shows "what railways in Ohio look like while we send $40 billion to Ukraine."
The image used in the post comes from a 6-year-old video, and that railway has since been fixed.
We rate this claim False.
This week saw the release of a wide-ranging investigation into the lucrative disinformation industry, published by a media consortium led by the French NGO Forbidden Stories. At the centre of the story is a shadowy Israeli group nicknamed "Team Jorge" who claims it has influenced 33 elections worldwide with a potent combination of phone hacking and thousands of fake profiles. FRANCE 24's Technology Editor Peter O'Brien dives into the systems they use to wage disinformation "black ops".
Ukraine is apparently in the process of developing a so-called dirty bomb - a bomb containing radioactive elements - or, at least, that's the narrative that Moscow has been peddling since October 23, 2022. The Russian Ministry of Defence posted these claims to Telegram and Twitter, along with illustrated documents meant to support these claims. But the images published in these documents are old and some of them were even taken in Russia.
After Moscow announced in September 2022 that it would call up some 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine, a video was viewed tens of thousands of times in social media posts that claim it shows a suicide bombing in Russia that targeted a recruitment officer. The claim, however, is false. While there were protests against the "partial" mobilisation in Russia, this video has circulated since at least 2021 in reports about a bombing in Syria.
Some pro-Russian web users in West Africa have been sharing a photo that allegedly illustrates the destruction of a Ukrainian military base in Odesa on September 25. However, the photo has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.
After Russia pressed on with its invasion of Ukraine, a video surfaced in social media posts in various languages claiming it shows a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian tanks. But the footage -- which has been viewed tens of thousands of times -- has been shared in a false context. It has circulated since March 2020 in reports about a Turkish drone assault on Syrian forces.