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 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.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has made no statement suggesting that Ukraine "must fight until 2030." In reality, Rutte warned that Russia could be prepared to use military force against NATO within the next five years, and emphasized that the threat to European security will persist even after the war in Ukraine concludes.
A video of NATO troops and armoured vehicles in Estonia in February is not evidence of a recent military escalation with Russia, as has been suggested online.
VERDICT: Miscaptioned. The video shows NATO troops in Tallinn on February 24, 2025, for Estonia's Independence Day, according to NATO and British officials. Photos posted online in 2024 suggest the three armoured vehicles in the video were in Estonia long before February.
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 spokesperson for the organisation told Full Fact: "This is a bogus claim. Secretary General Rutte has never said this."
They also pointed us towards the Secretary General's most recent remarks made to the media about President-elect Trump, congratulating him on his election victory and praising him for getting NATO countries to spend more on defence during his first presidency beyond two percent of the GDP target.
This quote is not real, however. There is no proof that Rutte has ever said or implied that he would expel the U.S. from NATO, and Rutte congratulated the incoming President on his victory in a post on X just two days after Election Day.