A Facebook post shared thousands of times in Nigeria claims that Russia has sent two nuclear bombers to Venezuela, landing them in what it describes as the 'US backyard'. The claim, however, is misleading; while the events mentioned in a CNN report included in the post did take place, they happened in 2018 and have nothing to do with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Social media posts claim that three NATO countries will give 70 warplanes to Ukraine to aid the fight against invading Russian forces. This is misleading; while Kyiv said Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia would provide the aircraft, officials from all three countries denied that they would do so.
“Maria Zakharova's claim that Ukraine started this war is false. The Russian Federation illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, sparking broad international condemnation. On February 21, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine from the north, northeast, and from the Crimean Peninsula in the south, initiating a full-scale interstate war between Russia and Ukraine”.
News reports, testimonies of citizens-turned-fighters, and a swift global response all fly in the face of baseless claims that Russia's war on Ukraine is "staged."
"There is little to refute directly, other than to note that thousands or millions of people would have to be in on any conspiracy to fake a war, and like the 9/11 attacks (which some people also deny) there is substantial video footage of attacks on Ukrainian cities, Russian invading forces, and throngs of refugees," Radnitz said.
Nevertheless, he added, "a true believer will persist in denying all that evidence, something that is easier to do when the conflict is geographically distant and they do not personally know anyone directly affected by it."
With a war raging, the world responding and both sides of the conflict experiencing its effects, the claim that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is "scripted and staged" holds no merit. We rate it Pants on Fire!
The people under the tarps aren't crisis actors from Ukraine trying to fool people into thinking they are dead. They were part of a protest against climate change that was held in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 4.
The clip is from a Feb. 4 demonstration against climate change in Vienna. The reporter, Marvin Bergauer, is from an Austrian news channel called OE24 TV and is speaking German in the video. An English translation of the chyron on the video says "Vienna: Demo against climate policy."
The people under the tarps aren't crisis actors ' from Germany, Ukraine or anywhere else ' trying to fool people into thinking that they are dead. They're protesters from Austria in a video taken before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
We rate this False.
Social media posts claim US broadcaster CNN misrepresented an image of a 2015 explosion as being from the 2022 war in Ukraine. But the image shows an explosion in Kyiv and was released by the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on February 24, 2022, and the channel said the alleged screenshot of a CNN report featured in the posts is fake.
Social media posts featuring an image of a woman in military uniform claim she is Ukraine's first female fighter pilot and that she died during Russia's invasion. But the Ukrainian Defense Ministry says the photo shows a soldier who won a 2016 beauty contest organized by the military, and the country's first female combat pilot is now a politician.
A video of Russian President Vladimir Putin addressing the press has been viewed thousands of times on Facebook posts alongside the claim that he has declared war on African countries - including Kenya and South Sudan - for commenting on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The claim is false; Putin's speech in Russian makes no mention of Africa. The clip was taken from his televised address on February 24, 2022, when he announced Russia's decision to invade Ukraine.
Social media posts and news reports about Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine have repeatedly shared an image of a burning jet alongside a claim that "six Russian fighter planes" were shot down. Whilst Ukraine's military said it had shot down six Russian aircraft on the first day of the invasion, the image has been shared in a false context. The photographer who captured the original image told AFP it was taken in 1993. The image corresponds to reports from 1993 about a crash involving Russian aircraft during a UK airshow.
Several images of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wearing camouflage, a bulletproof vest and a helmet have been shared on social media with claims that he was leading his soldiers on the battlefield as Russia invaded its eastern neighbour. However, the claim has been shared out of context: the photos were taken last year when Zelensky visited troops several times in the pro-Russian separatist region of Donbass in Ukraine.