There's been much anti-Ukraine and anti-Zelensky propaganda circulating online since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But a new billboard has just appeared name-dropping Ukraine's leader on New York's Fifth Avenue above a busy flagship store. Many factors point to the video being manipulated. Vedika Bahl explains in this edition of Truth or Fake.
Russian propagandists have created a fake site to spread false information
about Ukrainian counteroffensive losses. There are no public forums or
organizations that track counteroffensive casualty numbers. This
information is confidential. Ukrainian military and their allies note that
Ukrainian Armed Forces losses are much smaller than those incurred by the
Russian army.
An "advertising poster" in the photo was faked. The press service of the
Ministry of National Defense of Poland, at the request of a StopFake
journalist, stated that none of their departments responsible for
recruiting candidates for the Polish Army is the author of this poster.
In an interview with five European publications, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she cannot say exactly when Ukraine will join the EU, as the time frame depends on two factors, internal EU processes and the progress of reforms in Ukraine. At the same time, von der Leyen emphasized that in the long run, Ukraine and the Balkans "cannot but integrate into the EU."
UNESCO list of damaged cultural sites in Ukraine - 260 as of 19 June. (Note that this list includes only those sites that have been verified by UNESCO - a complete list would be far longer.)
While Congress has allocated $113 billion worth of spending toward Ukraine, analysis of that spending shows that a significant proportion will not go directly to Kyiv.
Analysis by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks U.S. spending in Ukraine, has suggested the total direct spend to be around $77 billion.
The photo used in the Kennedy campaign ad is from a picture used to help illustrate designs for online stores. The same retouched photo has been used by multiple online outlets.
While Newsweek was unable to find the location of the store, it does appear to have been shot in Russia or a Russian-speaking region.
However, there is no suggestion the choice of the photo was deliberate and is far likelier to have been an oversight of the RFK Jr. campaign team. Other photos the campaign has used for its merchandise were also shot in other locations around the world.
The UN report on the detention of civilians during Russia's full-scale attack on Ukraine focuses mainly on the atrocities committed by the Russian military on the territory of Ukraine. The report documents more than 900 cases of arbitrary detention of civilians, including children and the elderly. The "vast majority" of these cases were committed by the Russian Federation. Moreover, executions committed by Russian troops are equated with a war crime. No such executions have been recorded on the Ukrainian side.
An man posing as "Paul Kochadie" fooled over 400,000 followers on his Douyin account (TikTok's equivalent in China) by using artificial intelligence to pretend to be a Russian soldier on the Ukrainian frontline. This man, who sent "daily" updates about the war in Ukraine, was neither Russian nor a soldier, but instead a resident of Henan, China. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.
Russian aggression is aimed at Ukraine, not the so-called "collective West." And since this war has nothing to do with the West, the damage to the Ukrainian economy and the destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure is solely Russia's responsibility, having launched an unprovoked, large-scale invasion of Ukraine.