Fact-check: What really happened in Bucha?
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of a massacre in Bucha but Kremlin-backed media are denouncing it as a hoax. DW checked both claims and found enough evidence to prove the Russian side wrong.
Category Faked news reports
Read MoreFact-check: What really happened in Bucha?
Fake: Ukraine Revokes the Geneva Convention
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko refuted these Russian media claims saying they were not only fake, but also intended to undermine Ukraine's cooperation with international organizations. In a Facebook post Nikolenko wrote: "This fake aims to discredit Ukraine's relations with international humanitarian organizations who are saving victims of Russian aggression and trying to return deported and captured persons home". Nikolenko assured, that despite countless Russian fakes, Ukraine remains committed to its international obligations withing the framework of international law.
Fake: Zelensky’s Entourage Are Intermediaries in Weapons Schemes
Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul never said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's circle is involved in "schemes" to supply weapons to Ukraine. The Russian publication alleging this took McFaul's words out of context and distorted his meaning entirely.
Fake: US Calls Bucha Atrocities “Ukrainian Propaganda”
Jim Jatras cannot be called a useful idiot because he is seemingly an intelligent man with not an insignificant career behind him as a policy adviser and lobbyist. This former State Department employee is today a Russian propaganda mouthpiece, who along with other so-called "experts", appears constantly on RT and Sputnik. Jatras dutifully echoes Kremlin disinformation narratives, and he most certainly does not represent "the position of the United States" as Kremlin English language mouthpieces RT and Sputnik claim. The crimes that Russian troops committed in the towns and cities around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv have been documented not only by Ukrainian authorities, but also by international media and human rights organizations.
Fake: Mass Civilian Casualties in Kyiv Region Staged
There is no doubt that Ukraine's peaceful civilian population was subjected to extreme violence and brutality by the Russian military. Numerous local residents' testimonies from Kyiv area towns that have been under Russian military occupation for a month confirm this. Some of them have already been documented by the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch.
Fake: One Third of Ukrainian Refugees Arriving in France Are African Migrants
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%.
Fake CNN tweet shared in posts accusing broadcaster of fabricating ‘Ukraine bomb’ story
Multiple social media posts claim CNN fabricated a story about a "bomb attack" at the hotel of a journalist in Ukraine in a tweet that actually showed an old photo of a hotel in Serbia. However, CNN reported no such story and said the tweet was fake. The screenshot of the doctored tweet features the social media handle of a prankster who has previously shared fake CNN tweets.
Fake: Uman Synagogue Houses Ukrainian Nationalist Military Base
The Jewish community of Uman calls the claim that the local synagogue is being used as a military base by nationalists a lie. A rabbi specifically filmed a video in the synagogue to show that it was empty, there were no soldiers, no weapons, no military equipment in the building. Furthermore, Russian troops shelled the center of Uman on the very first day of the war, February 24, a 39-year-old man was killed, and five others were injured.
Fake: Ukrainian Authorities Doom Population to Starvation
The spring planting season in Ukraine is in jeopardy not because of the Ukrainian authorities, but because of the Russian Federation, which on February 24 unleashed a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian farmers were forced to start the spring planting campaign with bullets and missiles flying above them, regions where the war is raging are unable to sow wheat, extra hands needed for spring wheat planting are busy defending Ukraine and fuel shortages plague the entire process throughout the country. Nevertheless the spring planting campaign is underway in 20 farming regions in Ukraine.
Fake: Majority of IT Specialists Left Ukraine
According to a survey carried out by the IT Ukraine Association, more than 70% of Ukrainian IT specialists work in parts of Ukraine that are safe, the remaining 16% who are mostly women, work abroad. These findings were confirmed by a survey conducted by the DOU IT portal which found that 61% of IT specialists surveyed moved to a safer place, 46% moved to safer places within Ukraine, 14% went abroad.