Since the Russian war in Ukraine began, misinformation has been spreading widely. And one of the narratives we've seen again and again is the idea that Ukraine has been "staging" atrocities to sway public opinion in Western media outlets. Here's a closer look at three videos we've seen and debunked.
False. The claim that Lapin's body was discovered in a river is unsubstantiated. The original reports were based on a misleading tweet and were later retracted.
While there are numerous and, so far, unverified reports, including those from by pro-Kremlin outlets, suggesting that Lapin resigned or was removed from his command, there is no evidence to suggest that he is no longer alive.
Russia's Foreign Ministry has published photos purporting to prove that Ukraine is building a dirty bomb. In truth, the photos are of entirely different things - including reactors in Russia.
The images in the graphic, shared by the Russian Ministry of Defence, are not of a Ukrainian dirty bomb facility or evidence of the creation of a dirty bomb.
Some are photos of Russian and Siberian research facilities. Another, according to the Slovenian government, is from a 2010 Radioactive Waste Management presentation by a Slovenian non-profit. One of the images has been used several times over on different websites since 2010.
Ukraine does not have a nuclear bomb or a "dirty bomb," according to experts and watchdogs.
The country used to have Soviet-era nuclear weapons but returned them to Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Ukraine also dismantled or destroyed its nuclear missiles and silos. Its nuclear materials are now used for peaceful purposes.
Experts and watchdogs say Ukraine has neither a nuclear bomb nor a "dirty bomb." Ukraine used to have nuclear weapons but it transferred them to Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed and dismantled or destroyed its nuclear missiles and silos. The nation's nuclear materials are now used for peaceful purposes.
We rate the post False.
Ukraine is apparently in the process of developing a so-called dirty bomb - a bomb containing radioactive elements - or, at least, that's the narrative that Moscow has been peddling since October 23, 2022. The Russian Ministry of Defence posted these claims to Telegram and Twitter, along with illustrated documents meant to support these claims. But the images published in these documents are old and some of them were even taken in Russia.
A recent Instagram post sharing a TikTok video issues a "wake up call," purportedly pointing to several clips as evidence that scenes of war in Ukraine have been staged.
Using reverse image searches and InVid, a site that helps identify the origins of video clips, we found the ones featured in the Instagram post, and neither is meant to show real footage of the war in Ukraine.
Those claims were wrong, and so is this one. We rate the claim that these clips show fake war footage in Ukraine Pants on Fire.
Russia recently accused Ukraine of fabricating a "dirty bomb". These allegations were made on official Kremlin Telegram and Twitter accounts, accompanied by explanatory slides that seemed to implicitly support their claims. However, we found that many of the images are unrelated to the accusations. For example, some of the images presented as Ukrainian nuclear plants are actually Russian nuclear facilities. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.
Several Thai posts have shared a misleading claim that the Finnish government advised its citizens to urgently buy iodine tablets after an escalation of the war in Ukraine. It circulated in October 2022 after the Nordic country updated its guidelines on the use of iodine in case of a radiation hazard. A government official told AFP that events in Ukraine would not compromise radiation safety in Finland. They added that their guidelines aim to ensure there is protection for the most vulnerable in case of an emergency resulting from a nuclear reactor accident, as they are heavily dependent on nuclear power.
Uganda's president came out as an early supporter of russia but this is not a real CNN headline.
The post appears to be an altered screenshot of a 2014 story on CNN's website. The story features a paused video of Museveni in which he appears wearing the same outfit and in front of the same background as the image of him in the Instagram post.
We found no credible news reports or other sources documenting Museveni as saying it would be disgusting to support Ukraine.
We rate that claim False.