Videos purporting to show the Ukrainian army making or using chemical weapons keep surfacing on pro-Russian accounts. We debunk two of them in this edition of Truth or Fake.
In his opinion piece for the British conservative Daily Telegraph newspaper, retired British Colonel Richard Kemp does not write that
Ukraine "cannot seize Crimea." On the contrary, Kemp emphasizes that
"Russia's complete collapse is surprisingly close," Ukraine will be able to
return the Crimean Peninsula which was annexed in 2014 and "achieve the
complete collapse of Putin's forces" with the full support of its partners.
Russian news sites and Russian social media accounts are disseminating
fakes claiming that the bodies of more than 500 Ukrainian soldiers were
found in a mine shaft at the Bogdanka coal mine in Poland. Bogdanka's press
office told StopFake such claims are completely fake, and there are no
bodies anywhere on the coal mine's territory. StopFake factcheckers have
ascertained that these fake claims were originally published on an
anonymous Telegram channel, which according to Ukraine's Security Service,
is used by Russian secret services to foment and incite anti-government
sentiments in Ukraine.
A "document" purporting to be an order for the mobilization of Ukraine's
nuclear plant workers is being disseminated online. The document is a fake
as evidenced by the many errors in the text of the letter. Furthermore,
some of the "signers" of this "document" are no longer members of Ukraine's
parliament. Mobilization preparation and management is not the
responsibility of Ukraine's legislative body.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not say this. During a February press conference, Zelenskyy predicted that if Ukraine loses the war, Russia will then invade a country that's a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, forcing the U.S. to defend its allies.
Ukraine borders four NATO member countries, but it is not part of the military alliance.
Their ruling:
Greene claimed that Zelenskyy said he wants America's "sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine."
Zelenskyy did not say that.
During a press conference, he predicted that if Ukraine loses the war, Russia will invade a NATO member country next. If that happens, Zelenskyy said, Americans would be required to "send their sons and daughters" to war because of NATO's mutual defense treaty.
He did not mention U.S. troops going to Ukraine.
We rate this claim False.
There are a number of misleading elements to this tweet. Firstly, the video is not a "confession" at all. It is footage from an interview with Russian state-funded broadcaster RT. [...]
The tweet did not provide the necessary context for readers to be able to judge the significance of the footage, which only contained the opinions of a retired state senator.
According to social media images, Leopard 2 tanks - recently delivered to Ukraine after weeks of waiting - have been destroyed by Russia's Wagner mercenary group. But Wagner's head Yevgeny Prigozhin has denied the claims, and the images have in fact been around on the internet for a while. We take a closer look in this edition of Truth or Fake with Vedika Bahl.
Since the end of 2022, the FRANCE 24 Observers team has seen several similar examples of fake anti-Ukraine advertisements, reportedly on billboards in the United States and Poland. But when we took a closer look, we found some clues that convinced us these ads were fake and that the videos were edited.
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.
In a video circulated by Russian media claiming it shows Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky's double, the Ukrainian President is followed
by his personal bodyguard, Maxim Donets, who has headed the Ukrainian
Presidential Security Service since 2-019.