According to the French Ministry of the Interior, as of March 31, the number of non-Europeans among the more than 26,000 Ukrainian refugees who arrived in France is less than 5%.
After Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine, a video was viewed millions of times in multiple Facebook posts that claimed it shows fighting between soldiers from the two countries. In fact, the video has circulated online since 2010. A visual analysis of the clip found it corresponds with a raid by American and Iraqi troops on a shrine in Iraq in 2004.
A video that appears to show explosions in the French capital of Paris has been viewed thousands of times in misleading social media posts that claim it shows a real attack on the Eiffel Tower. The posts suggest the attack was carried out by Russian forces in response to sanctions from foreign powers following its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. The footage, however, has been shared in a false context: it shows a fictional film created by a French director that was then shared online by Ukrainian officials in a bid to urge European authorities to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Multiple posts on Facebook have claimed that a sharpshooting Canadian sniper known as Wali was killed by Russian special forces 20 minutes after he arrived on the frontline in Mariupol, Ukraine as a volunteer fighter. However, this is false; the man, a former Canadian Armed Forces sniper, dispelled the rumours of his death during a video call.
A photo of firefighters covered in soot has been shared thousands of times in social media posts that claim it shows Ukrainian firemen working to "save lives" after the Russian invasion. Although Ukraine's firefighters have been working at the sites of Russian air strikes since Moscow began bombarding Ukrainian cities, the image actually shows firefighters in Australia.
There is no evidence Putin beheaded 12 bioweapon engineers in Ukraine.
This claim comes from Real Raw News, a blog that has shown a pattern of fabricating news about politicians being executed or arrested by the military.
Though the story claims Putin told former President Donald Trump about the alleged beheading, a spokesperson for Trump said the account is baseless.
The Space Foundation removed Yuri Gagarin's name from an upcoming fundraising event after it received derogatory and anti-Russia comments on its social media accounts.
The organization did not revoke any formal honors from the cosmonaut. Exhibits related to Gagarin are still on display at the foundation's gallery in Colorado, and his accomplishments will still be celebrated at the annual event, the group said.
Our ruling
A Facebook post claims, "the Space Foundation has erased the honors previously bestowed on Yuri Gagarin, the first man to ever be in space. His name was stripped 'in light of current events.'"
This is misleading.
The Space Foundation removed Gagarin's name from an event after it received derogatory and anti-Russian comments on its social media accounts due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But the organization did not revoke any formal honors from the cosmonaut. Gagarin's exhibits are still on display at the foundation and his accomplishments will still be celebrated at the event.
The post contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.
An email was sent on March 7 instructing some U.N. staff members not to use the words "war" or "invasion" when discussing the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The message came from a regional office without clearance and is not considered official U.N. policy, organization officials told PolitiFact. U.N. leaders including Secretary General António Guterres and Rosemary DiCarlo, the organization's under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, used the words in tweets before and after the email was sent.
Our ruling
A Facebook post claims that the U.N. sent an email instructing staff not to use the words "invasion" or "war" when referring to Ukraine.
The email is real and instructed some U.N. staff members not to use the terms. But it came from a regional U.N. office and officials say that it did not reflect the organization's official policy. Top U.N. leaders have used the words on social media before and around the time the email was sent.
For a statement that's partially accurate but leaves out important details, we rate this Half True.
A Canadian charity has for years donated firefighter gear to Ukrainians. A jacket bearing the name of the city Edmonton that appeared in live CNN coverage in Ukraine came from the group, the charity said.
An April 2019 Instagram post from the group shows piles of jackets bound for Ukraine. A 2018 post says: "Sharing more gear outside Lviv." The second photo in this post shows someone holding up a jacket that says "Edmonton" that resembles the one that appears in the CNN broadcast.
We rate claims that this jacket is evidence that CNN staged the scene, or that Lemon isn't in Ukraine, False.
Some social media accounts circulated this text, claiming it was a real quote from a speech that President Biden gave in Warsaw on Saturday, March 26.
President Biden however, did not say these words, not during his Warsaw speech, nor during any of his other public appearances. StopFake analyzed his public speeches as well as transcripts of meetings with media for the period of Februarty 24 through March 26, 2022. We did not find this criticism or any similar criticisms to have been uttered by the American President regarding the Ukrainian government.
On the contrary, an analysis of Biden's speeches shows that the statements circulated on the Internet contradict the position of the White House and what the US President has actually said.