No, a viral photo doesn’t show Ukraine surrendering
A viral post claims Ukraine surrendered to Russia. The photo is not recent and suspected to be part of a Russian misinformation campaign from April 2022.
Category The war is a hoax
Read MoreNo, a viral photo doesn’t show Ukraine surrendering
Claim that there’s ‘zero footage from the Ukraine war’ ignores countless photos and videos
The devastation from the Russia-Ukraine war has been well documented. There are hundreds of legitimate photos and videos depicting war casualties and decimated communities.
Some photos and videos have been documented by news media; other footage has been taken by Ukrainian civilians whose lives were upended by Russia's invasion.
We rate the claim that there is "zero footage of the Ukraine war" Pants on Fire!
Ukraine Video Does Not Show Women Carrying Film Prop Stones Out of Church Hit by Russian Airstrike
This tweet, as well as others, implied that the objects the women were carrying were lightweight movie props, perhaps meant to resemble heavy pieces of concrete.
However, higher-quality video of the original footage shows that the materials carried by these women were not heavy stones or concrete, but rather a "light, polystyrene-like material" that had likely been used for the church's insulation.
Fake: Ukraine “Forced” Schoolchildren to Study in Shelters “for PR”
Due to Russian aggression and occupiers' attacks on civilian infrastructure, only a third of Ukrainian schoolchildren have the opportunity to study full-time in a face-to-face format. More than 4,100 schools in Ukraine have been destroyed or damaged. That is why Ukrainian schools practice mixed methods - online and offline - in safe shelters underground.
FACT CHECK: Post Falsely Claims Zero Footage Of The Russian-Ukrainian War | Check Your Fact
Verdict: False
There are thousands of videos of the Russian-Ukrainian war available.
The war in Ukraine is real and ongoing, despite nonsense social media posts
That's because it trafficks in misinformation about the war that we've encountered before. Previous posts have falsely claimed that various photos are evidence the war is fake, that video clips prove it's staged, that it's scripted. None of that was accurate, and neither is the claim that there's no war in Ukraine.
It defies more than a year of news coverage from reporters with media outlets from around the world giving dispatches from Ukraine, describing the front lines, the lives of civilians and more.
We rate this post Pants on Fire!
Fake: Ukraine Stages Aspirational Videos to Raise Morale Among the Military
A video circulating online shows the filming of the short feature film 'Hope'. The behind-the-scenes videos were taken from the TikTok account of the director Artem Kocharyan, who currently lives in Latvia. The film is based on the real story of his Ukraine acquaintance - a pregnant girl who lost her family due to the Russian aggression.
Kyiv rebuilt residential tower damaged by missile
A residential tower in Kyiv that was hit by a missile soon after Russia launched its war against Ukraine has become a subject of misinformation. Social media users claim pictures, showing the building seemingly intact, prove the war that began more than a year ago is not real. But AFP found authentic evidence of extensive damage to the building, and the restoration that followed.
The war in Ukraine isn’t ‘fake,’ and these photos don’t prove that it is
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!
A year of disinformation around the war in Ukraine
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.
