VERDICT: False. CNN did not publish a video of Marco Rubio saying he would convince Elon Musk to end Ukraine's access to Starlink. Rubio has said there was no such threat.
WHAT WAS CLAIMED: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and a journalist had an exchange about the impending peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
OUR VERDICT: Fake: No such exchange on diplomacy and Russia's concessions took place between Hegseth and a reporter in a press briefing after a NATO defense ministers' meeting on Feb. 13.
A BBC reporter wasn't caught on tape cursing about the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting. We rate that claim Pants on Fire!
AI-generated audio has been added to the clip, falsely making it seem like the BBC correspondent swore about the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting on air.
What was claimed
BBC Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse was caught on a hot mic after the meeting of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump in the White House, saying: "This is the second time ever that a US president ****s someone in the Oval Office."
Our verdict
This audio clip has been faked. Mr Waterhouse says it is AI-generated, and a full clip of the report shows no such comments were broadcast.
Wired has never published such claims, and the video itself was probably created using AI. The fake is noticeably different from the outlet's official style: it lacks the characteristic title, and the footage used is of poor quality. StopFake's journalists found no evidence of such a bot campaign; instead, they discovered that after Zelensky's meeting with Trump, Russian propaganda stepped up the spread of deepfakes, doctored screenshots, and fake videos bearing the logos of well-known media outlets to sow dissension among Ukraine's allies and demoralise Ukrainian society.
Waterhouse did not make the off-the-cuff remark in the original footage of the broadcast, which BBC News posted to its official YouTube channel on March 1, the day it originally aired. In other words, versions of the video that included Waterhouse allegedly saying "this is the second time ever that a U.S. president f***ed someone in the Oval Office" were doctored to misrepresent reality. As a result, we've rated the claim fake.
Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy buy the French bank Milleis in February 2025 using the offshore company Maltex? No, that's not true: No credible media organization reported this story, as of March 6, 2025. A viral video purporting to be a TV news report about it displayed a non-existent TV channel logo. And the video contained inauthentic, AI-generated audio, according to two AI detectors.
Did a video clip shared to X authentically show a BBC reporter joking the February 28, 2025 Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump was " ... the second time that a U.S. president f***ed someone in the Oval Office." ? No, that's not true: The audio was generated using artificial intelligence. The original newscast did not include any such remark and the reporter has publicly dismissed its authenticity.
In conclusion, there is no credible evidence that American weapons sent to Ukraine are ending up in Mexico, Syria, Gaza or any location outside of Ukraine, and claims otherwise may be attributed to Russian disinformation campaigns. The United States and Ukrainian governments have attempted strict oversight of their weapons - to mixed results - but any arms trafficking happening in Ukraine appears, as of this writing, to be contained to isolated incidents by criminals.