StopFake found no evidence of Ukrainian refugees living in Europe having their children taken away from them. The German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) and the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) are not aware of any such cases in the families of Ukrainian refugees.
The story is certainly complicated, and the information currently accessible to the public is clearly not enough to draw any conclusions. But the topic of Western russophobia was clearly added to it by the correspondent of Channel One. The publications in Spanish and Swiss media do not mention that the problem is related to the war in Ukraine. They only cite Elena's words: "At school, the war in Ukraine is talked about a lot. They say that we, Russians, are all bad. And the girls would come home sad because of it" - without claims that it could have caused the children to be taken away. And the story that the girls are allegedly considered children of Ukrainians killed in the war is found only in Valentina Solovyova's story.
A new hoax has been targeting Ukrainian refugees. These two men covered in Nazi tattoos, wearing beach shorts, have been presented as Ukrainian refugees in Croatia by pro-Russian Twitter accounts. In reality, the images show Hungarian members of a neo-Nazi group.
A Swiss land registry official said that documents claiming to show purchases of luxury properties by Ukrainian officials are forged.
The documents contain errors, such as the wrong digit count in numbers identifying the property.
A Swiss newspaper said the false claims were the work of a blogger loyal to the Kremlin.
Our ruling
A website claimed that three high-ranking Ukrainian officials had purchased luxury property in the resort town of Gstaad, Switzerland.
A Swiss land registry official said the documents cited as evidence were forged; errors in them prove that they did not come from the registry, the official said.
We rate this claim False.
Several pro-Russian accounts have been circulating photos that they say show how Ukrainians put anti-Russian stickers in different places in Auschwitz, the former death camp run by the Nazis. The stickers say: "Russia & Russians - The only gas you and your country deserve is Zyklon B", a reference to the toxic gas used by Nazis to kill prisoners in the on-site gas chambers.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, over 7 million people have fled the country. Multiple reports have outlined the specific difficulties that African refugees faced as they attempted to cross the Polish border and enter the European Union. Georgina Robertson and Sophie Samaille take a look at a Facebook post falsely claiming that refugees from Africa were shot at by Polish police.
The United States government didn't admit that there are 46 U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine.
The document referenced by far-right and socialist websites repeats known information about 46 Ukrainian-owned and -operated laboratories, health facilities and diagnostic sites that have received support from the U.S.
The government fact sheet specifically states that Ukraine "has no nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons programs."
Our ruling
A Gateway Pundit article said, "US Department of Defense Finally Comes Clean - Admits in Public Document that There Are 46 US Military-Funded Biolabs in Ukraine."
There was no "coming clean" ' and the government made no such admission.
The document referenced in the stories repeated known information about 46 Ukrainian-owned-and-operated laboratories, health facilities and diagnostic sites that have received support from the U.S. The document specifically states that Ukraine "has no nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons programs."
We rate this claim False.
Online articles and social media posts claim US-funded labs in Ukraine are developing biological warfare weapons, saying this is part of the justification for the Russian attack on its eastern European neighbor. But former US officials and non-proliferation experts say the labs are working to detect and prevent the spread of bioweapons, and have also helped in containing disease outbreaks.
Ukraine has not banned the use of the Russian language in the country.
A 2019 law established Ukrainian as the official language of Ukraine and strengthened its use in businesses, schools and the media.
Our ruling
Lavrov referenced the banning and prohibition of Russian in Ukraine, particularly in "education, the media, everyday contacts," during a press conference.
Despite a language law that establishes Ukrainian as the country's official language and prioritizes its use in civil society, Russian has not been banned.
We rate Lavrov's statement False.
Four days after the Tass articles, on 31 May, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control director-general Ifedayo Adetifa released a statement debunking Russia's claims.
"Nigeria has no laboratories where monkeypox virus is generated," he says in the statement, adding that the claims are "not backed by any evidence". On 30 May the US consulate in Nigeria also issued a statement, dismissing Russia's claims as "pure fabrication". And in a press briefing on 2 June, the WHO said the organisation hadn't received any request from Russia to investigate "US biolabs" in Nigeria.