Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy predicted that if Russia’s invasion of his country is successful, it will invade nearby NATO countries, triggering a war involving the U.S. military. Some conservative commentators misleadingly claimed that he’d called upon the U.S. to “send their sons and daughters to war for Ukraine and potentially die.”
The words "big, fat, corrupt sinkhole" are not a direct quote, but an interpretation of what Gates is saying in the edited clip.
As his quote shows, Gates was referring to "pre-war" Ukraine, crucial context that was omitted from the clip circulating online.
It is not clear what Gates' timeframe is for "pre-war"—it could refer to before Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 or its initial invasion in 2014.
Misleading Material. The clip was removed from its important and clarifying context, giving a misleading impression of what Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leader's remarks were a hypothetical answer about what could happen should Ukraine lose the war to Russia, partially due to decreased support from the United States. [...]
Zelensky did not suggest that Americans should send their children to fight now for Ukraine against Russian forces.
An out of context excerpt from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's
press conference is being circulated online by Russian and US social media
users, claiming that he is calling on Americans to fight for Ukraine.
Answering questions during a press conference dedicated to the first
anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky said that
if Ukraine fails to stop Russia, then NATO countries will have to do it,
because capturing Ukraine will not stop Russia's expansionist policies
regarding its neighboring countries, including NATO members.
Fake Russian social media posts use 2018 photo of Turkish tank destroyed in
Syria.
Construction workers in Ukraine have been working to repair homes damaged by missiles during the country's war with Russia. Their efforts have been captured by amateur and professional photographers, as well as multiple news organizations.
A photo of a reconstructed building is not proof the war is fake. The war is real and has left thousands of civilians dead.
Images from professional and amateur photographers captured the repair progress. European Pressphoto Agency published multiple before-and-after images of the building. One montage of images shared on Twitter on Feb. 26, 2023, appears to show the building repairs at different phases.
We rate claims that these images prove the war in Ukraine is fake Pants on Fire!
The war in Ukraine has been accompanied by a ferocious battle of disinformation, waged in particular by pro-Russian agitators seeking to distort and shift the blame for many atrocities on the ground. They have sought to depict the Ukrainian side as Nazis or suggest that Western support for Kyiv is evaporating. Here are some of the main narratives, false or misleading, that have been fact-checked over the past year by AFP's digital verification teams.
A recent blog post builds on a fictitious narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin is stymieing the production of adrenochrome in Ukraine.......We found no credible news reports or sources to corroborate the unfounded allegations, which were published on Real Raw News, a site that regularly posts fake news. The blog's stories are written by someone using a pseudonym and the site has a disclaimer saying it contains "humor, parody and satire," though the author has defended his stories as truth.
The same site wrote separately that Putin intercepted a shipment of adrenochrome bound for the United States. We rated that Pants on Fire!......We rate claims that Putin destroyed an adrenochrome warehouse in Ukraine Pants on Fire!
On February 24, 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion into Ukraine, triggering a war on the ground, but also an information war online. Since then, the FRANCE 24 Observers team has debunked 115 pieces of misinformation that have been shared in photos or videos online. But what are the main themes in these false narratives? And what techniques are used to misinform? Here's a look back at this year in fake news.
Adrenochrome features heavily in QAnon conspiracy theories, which purport the baseless idea that a global cabal of pedophiles is harvesting the chemical from the blood of children to stay young and healthy.
That's false, and so is the claim that Putin foiled a shipment of it.
We found no credible news reports or other sources to corroborate the claims in this post.
Real Raw News has a disclaimer saying it contains "humor, parody and satire," though the author has defended his stories as truth. The website also regularly publishes false, fantastical stories authored by someone using a pseudonym.
We rate this baseless post Pants on Fire!