As an open source researcher you often cover data or footage that is highly contested and ethically difficult. Director of Research and Training Giancarlo Fiorella has written a guide to navigating ethical dilemmas in our field.
A photo of people gathering in a square has been viewed tens of thousands of times alongside a false claim it shows an anti-war protest in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in September 2023. The photo in fact predates Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine; it was taken in Turin, Italy in November 2018 and shows a rally to support the construction of a controversial train line.
Although Putin claimed that Poland wanted to "regain western territories of Ukraine," that accusation was unsubstantiated and has never been been confirmed by any actions or declarations of Polish authorities.
Therefore, the Kremlin’s claim that they presented a set of evidence to the UN which proves Ukraine’s crimes in Bucha is fake. That which the Russian Ambassador presented at a special press conference and the UN Security Council are impossible to be considered as “evidence.” Most of them are easily verifiable false claims and the rest is absurd allegations which are not considered as evidence in any format.
Bodies everywhere: on the roads, on the side of the road, and in makeshift mass graves. That's how you can describe photos and videos from the Ukrainian town of Bucha, located very close to Kyiv. The images were seen by people around the world and shocked many. Russia, which was in control of the town, is trying to prove that its troops had nothing to do with it. They use the usual disinformation tactics: they launch several false theses at once in order to confuse everyone as much as possible.
Euroradio refutes Russian propagandists' fakes about the massacre in Bucha.
Ukraine authorities have said bodies discovered on April 2, 2022 in the small town of Bucha were civilians killed by retreating Russian forces, allegations which Moscow has denied. Several posts shared on social networks -- including from Russian authorities -- have claimed that the scene was staged by Ukrainian forces and some of the so-called bodies were filmed moving. But AFP journalists on the ground confirmed they saw dead bodies that had been left for several days; footage used to support the misleading claims does not show the bodies moving, AFP's investigation found.
Open source evidence exists that appears to run counter to claims of elaborate fakes and staged productions, as well as calling into question the apparent timeline of events as depicted by Russia in recent days.
On April 2, international journalists and Ukrainian military units entered Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv. The previous evening, videos showing the bodies of civilians lying on Yablonska Street had begun surfacing on Telegram, shocking people around the world. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to the Russian military’s actions as genocide; U.S. President Joe Biden called them war crimes. Meanwhile, the Russian government has given a number of contradictory explanations of what happened, none of which have acknowledged Russia’s own responsibility. Meduza has collected and analyzed all of the available information about the atrocities in Bucha. Here’s what we know for sure.
