BBC News debunks several disinformation narratives making the rounds on Twitter - amplified in particular by paid "blue check" accounts:
- Weapons for Ukraine not used in French riots
- No evidence of 'baby factories' in Ukraine
- Kramatorsk missile not Ukrainian
- Zelensky has not cancelled elections
There's been much anti-Ukraine and anti-Zelensky propaganda circulating online since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But a new billboard has just appeared name-dropping Ukraine's leader on New York's Fifth Avenue above a busy flagship store. Many factors point to the video being manipulated. Vedika Bahl explains in this edition of Truth or Fake.
The Ukrainian Constitution does not allow for elections when martial law is imposed.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not refuse to hold elections in Ukraine. The Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine "On the Legal Regime of Martial Law" expressly prohibit holding any elections to the executive and legislative branches of government during wartime.
"Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not refuse to hold elections in Ukraine. The Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Regime of Martial Law” expressly prohibit holding any elections to the executive and legislative branches of government during wartime."
The drop in Kyiv's rating is not due to the rule of Zelenskyy and Klitschko, but to the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Economist study notes that Kyiv's score has dropped by 5.9 percentage points compared to 2021 because "its stability and infrastructure damaged by the war." In 2022, The Economist was forced to remove Kyiv from the ranking altogether due to the hostilities in the Kyiv region.
Misleading Material. General mobilization and martial law have been imposed in Ukraine since day one of Russia's invasion.
The document being shared on social media by pro-Kremlin accounts does not call for another general mobilization of the country but is a local order for residents to update their information, and for authorities to track and keep record of eligibility.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not issued any statements about
any counteroffensive "failure". He has stressed that the war in Ukraine is
"not a Hollywood movie" and that the lives of Ukrainian citizens are at
stake.
The Pentagon has uncovered a significant accounting error that led it to overvalue the amount of military equipment it sent to Ukraine since Russia's invasion last year - by $6.2 billion.
In a video shared online, Senator Lindsey Graham appears to tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "the Russians are dying" and that is "the best money" the US has ever spent. But the clip is edited; the full footage shows Graham did not make the statements consecutively.