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.
The video is a fabrication. Al Jazeera has not published any investigation on this topic. In reality, UK, France, and Germany have led an international coalition countering Iran's blockade and pushing for the restoration of freedom of navigation.
President Donald Trump lashed out at NATO and other allies for not supporting the United States in its war against Iran before both countries agreed to a two-week ceasefire in April 2026. Criticising South Korea for supposedly not doing enough despite receiving US military support, Trump claimed 45,000 American soldiers are stationed in the Asian nation. But a review of US legislation and defence data found the number is around 28,500, lower than Trump's figure.
Does a viral image of world leaders showing their middle fingers as an act of apparent disagreement with U.S. President Donald Trump show a real 2026 TIME Magazine cover? No, that's not true: The magazine's website did not contain such a cover. The image displayed shows signs strongly pointing to generative AI.
WHAT WAS CLAIMED: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer posted a statement on X saying that American forces must withdraw from UK airbases within 48 hours and pay historic rent if the United States ends its commitment to NATO.
VERDICT: False. The image of the post is fabricated and originally came from a satirical social media account. No such statement has been published on Keir Starmer's genuine X account or made publicly by him.
The claim does not appear on any of USA Today's official platforms, and Parker Hempel, the ISW analyst cited in the video, has no record of making the statements attributed to him. Iran's missile arsenal draws exclusively from Soviet and North Korean design lineages, and U.S.-manufactured systems are mechanically incompatible with Iranian launch infrastructure. The video is the latest iteration of a recurring disinformation narrative - the so-called "NATO weapons black market" - a claim that has been repeatedly investigated and never substantiated.
Eleven charts illustrate the extraordinary level of support the United States has provided Ukraine in recent years - though there has been no new U.S. aid legislation since 2024, and combined European aid tops U.S. contributions.
The quote attributed to Olena Zelenska is false. A similar phrase appeared in a 2022 BBC interview, but there she spoke not about enduring harsh conditions for 20-30 years or about joining NATO, but about 2-3 years and the prospect of joining the European Union
Several pro-Russian websites have reported that two British army officers were captured by Russian special forces during a raid into Ukraine. It turns out, however, that the story is false and the photos meant to show the captured soldiers were generated by artificial intelligence. But that hasn't stopped this fake news item from being spread in at least 13 countries.
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.