Online posts claim the Statue of Liberty in New York City was adorned with a Ukrainian flag as a sign of solidarity following the Russian invasion. But a reverse image search found that the photo shows a replica Statue of Liberty located in Colmar, France, that was also photographed on March 2, 2022 by AFP.
An image comparing what appears to be an Italian television network's coverage of the war in Ukraine to a shot from a movie has spread online in posts claiming the media is lying about Russia's invasion. But the network's parent company rejected the claim, a word is missing from the TGCOM24 logo used in the posts, and AFP found no evidence of the footage being broadcast on the channel.
Facebook posts published in Ethiopia and Nigeria have claimed that Africans trying to flee the war in Ukraine have been mistreated and racially discriminated against based on images showing black men with visible injuries being held in captivity. There have been widespread reports about the mistreatment of Africans trying to leave the country, but these images were taken at a refugee camp in Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the north coast of Morocco - not in Ukraine.
Multiple megachurches around the United States have been raising funds to help Ukrainians during Russia's invasion.
Gateway Church, another megachurch in Texas, has set up a crisis relief fund to support people in Ukraine and the surrounding region.
Saddleback Church, a megachurch located in Lake Forest, California, has an advance relief team connecting with local pastors in Ukraine and Poland who are caring for hundreds of Ukrainian refugees. The church's website features ways people can help and has provided multiple updates on its efforts in the region.
The Rock Church, a megachurch in San Diego, California, is directing people to its partner organization, Crisis Response International, and told PolitiFact that it's in the process of establishing a Ukraine relief fund.
Crossroads Church, an Ohio-based megachurch, partners with humanitarian and disaster relief organizations Convoy of Hope and World Vision, which both have operations on the ground in Ukraine.
Other church networks, like the United Methodist Committee on Relief and Catholic Relief Services, are collecting donations and deploying staff and resources.
We rate posts that say no megachurches are raising money for Ukraine relief False.
A video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in Facebook posts that claim it shows Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to embarrass a "Japanese delegation" by bringing his dog to an official meeting. The posts -- which circulated online after Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- refer to Japan's alignment with the United States and other countries, which have imposed sanctions on Moscow. But the video has been shared in a false context. It shows Putin bringing his dog to an interview with Japanese journalists at the Kremlin in 2016.
A photo of an elderly man clutching a cat has been shared in social media posts around the world that claim he was seeking shelter from Russian shelling in Ukraine. While millions of people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion, the photo actually shows a man with his cat at the scene of a fire in Turkey in 2018.
Picture showing cars with smashed windows are circulating in multiple social media posts that claim they are vehicles in Ukraine targeted after the Russian invasion for displaying stickers of the Chinese flag. In fact, the pictures were digitally altered to add the flag and were taken years before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Col. Oleksandr "Grey Wolf" Oksanchenko, a decorated Ukrainian pilot, was killed in combat on Feb. 25.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded him posthumously with the title of Hero of Ukraine, along with 11 other military service members.
Unconfirmed reports hold that an unidentified pilot, who has come to be called the "Ghost of Kyiv," downed six Russian planes on the first day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We do not find evidence that this was Oksanchenko.
It's uncertain how the Ghost of Kyiv tale originated, but we know that Ukraine's military reported on Feb. 24 that at least six Russian planes and two helicopters had been downed. Crediting Ukrainian military, CNN and NBC soon reported five Russian planes and one helicopter had been shot down. Russia's defense ministry denied the report, according to Reuters, and said that Ukraine's air force defenses had been "suppressed."
Ukraine's official Twitter account, meanwhile, promoted the Ghost of Kyiv narrative with a video that suggested the mystery pilot could have been responsible for as many as 10 downed Russian aircraft by Feb. 26. That video, too, included footage from a video game.
PolitiFact did not receive a response from Zelensky's administration about Oksanchenko and the Ghost of Kyiv claim.
Finding no conclusive information tying Oksanchenko to the Ghost of Kyiv, we rate this claim False.
Videos shared on Facebook claim to show Russian President Vladimir Putin warning Nigeria to stay out of the war in Ukraine or risk entering into its own conflict. But this is false: AFP Fact Check found that the clips use false subtitle translations. One video is from 2020 and shows Putin addressing Russians about the novel coronavirus. In another, he does address Russia's ongoing attack on Ukraine but makes no mention of Nigeria.
A video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in multiple Facebook posts that claim it shows the Russian military "storming the Ukrainian president's house". This is false; the clip has circulated since 2016 in reports about a raid that led to the arrest of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. As of March 14, 2022, Russian forces have not seized control of the presidential palace in Ukraine's capital Kyiv.