After Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected on March 17, a photo went viral showing an explosion behind one of his campaign posters featuring the slogan 'stability'. However, it turns out that this image was created by a Ukrainian designer.
People online have been widely circulating footage that they say shows the Russians transporting nuclear weapons, which some claim is in response to Sweden joining NATO. However, there is actually a different explanation for these images - which have already been taken out of context in the past. Similar videos are posted every year showing preparations for a military parade held annually in Russia on May 9.
Russian media and Telegram channels are distributing a video in which Ukrainian soldiers allegedly stopped a woman with a child because she did not give way to them. As evidence, they provide a segment from the video recorder in the woman’s car. The soldiers then allegedly started yelling at the woman, cursing her, threatening her with guns and shooting in the air because she was speaking to them in Russian.
In fact, this video is staged, it was filmed in the occupied territory of the Donetsk region, where there are no Ukrainian troops.
Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni say, "If Russia does not agree to the terms of the peace summit, we will force it to surrender"? No, that's not true: The comments attributed to her come from a falsified Russian translation of what she said in English at the Ukraine Peace Summit held in Switzerland in June 2024. While Meloni has strongly criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine, no credible sources report her saying that Russia should be forced to surrender.
Verdict: False
The satellite image is from June 7, while the attack was on June 8. The person who obtained the image also refuted the claim.
A video of a massive fire circulated widely on social media in late April along with captions claiming it showed a strike by the Russian army on a NATO weapons convoy en route to Ukraine. However, it turns out that this is an old video that wasn't filmed anywhere near Ukraine.
Does a 50-second video show authentic remarks by U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller discussing "military targets" in the Russian city of Belgorod, with "virtually no civilians left" in that city?
No, that's not true: The video mixes video of different briefings, during which Miller made no such remarks. The words falsely attributed to him in the video were AI-generated. The State Department labeled the video a deepfake.
The video of fake remarks was also posted by the Russian Embassy in South Africa account on X, but later that post was deleted.
Social media users are sharing a viral video that purports to show French pilots painting a Russian flag in the sky, instead of a French one, during Marseille's Olympic flyover event. We explain if this was an accident or rather an optical illusion, in this edition of Truth or Fake.
As the war between Russia and Ukraine continues, claims that China has threatened the US and Nato are false.
We debunk an ongoing theme in the Russian disinformation and propaganda campaign: That Ukraine is sending children to fight on the frontline. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.