Category Misconceptions

Fact Check: NATO troops in Estonia for 2025 Independence Day, not military escalation

A video of NATO troops and armoured vehicles in Estonia in February is not evidence of a recent military escalation with Russia, as has been suggested online.

VERDICT: Miscaptioned. The video shows NATO troops in Tallinn on February 24, 2025, for Estonia's Independence Day, according to NATO and British officials. Photos posted online in 2024 suggest the three armoured vehicles in the video were in Estonia long before February.

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Fake: Russian Forces Attacked Restaurant with NATO Troops in Kryvyi Rih

On 4 April 2025, Russian forces launched a ballistic missile attack on a residential area in Kryvyi Rih. The missile, equipped with a cluster warhead, landed near a children's playground, causing heavy civilian casualties. Twenty people were killed, nine of them children. Video footage from the restaurant, which was also damaged in the strike, clearly shows that no military personnel were present at the time of the attack.

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Fake: Ukraine Seeks to Buy Uranium from Niger to Develop Nuclear Weapons

This claim, made by propagandists citing African media, is false - mainly because Defence Minister Rustem Umerov did not visit Niger in November 2023. Moreover, by the end of 2024, the French company Orano had lost control of uranium mining in Niger, and the country's main uranium buyers are now Russia and China.

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Fake: Ukrainian Soldier Admits that Ukrainian Forces ‘Killed Children in Sudzha’

The claim circulating on Russian platforms that a Ukrainian soldier allegedly confessed to killing a child near Sudzha is either fake or at least unverified. The message was posted on a Facebook account that, according to available data, previously belonged to Ukrainian soldier Artur Yakovitskyi. His family has reported him missing - according to open sources, he disappeared near the settlement of Sudzha on 28 February 2025. On 28 March, a suspicious post appeared on his Facebook page, allegedly containing a confession to the murder. On 1 April, a screenshot of this post began actively circulating on pro-Russian Telegram channels. The image of the "murdered teenager" attached to the post was likely generated by artificial intelligence - this is supported by the analysis results of several AI detection tools.

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Fake: Ukraine’s Presidential Office Claims EU ‘Owes’ Ukraine for Security

The propagandists fabricated a screenshot of a Ukrainian news article with a quote purporting to be from Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, saying that EU countries 'owe' Ukraine for security. In reality, Podolyak said that each country independently determines the amount of military assistance Ukraine can expect.

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