Fact checks: from across the internet
Ukraine Fact Check presents fact checks on Ukraine in two different ways. Our team works to:
1. index and tag existing fact-check articles from reputable sources from across the internet;
2. compile and publish original fact check articles, based our team’s own research into a subject.
Below, you can find the fact-check articles published by other websites across the internet.
Disclaimer: Ukraine Fact Check was not involved in producing the articles listed below. The information presented in them may be incorrect, incomplete, or misleading. As with any other type of article, read with a critical eye, check sources, and seek other opinions before making up your mind on important topics.
This image of an explosion behind Putin’s ‘stability’ billboard is literally too good to be true
After Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected on March 17, a photo went viral showing an explosion behind one of his campaign posters featuring the slogan ‘stability’. However, it turns out that this image was created by a Ukrainian designer.
What we know about this footage alleged to show ‘Russia moving nuclear missiles’?
People online have been widely circulating footage that they say shows the Russians transporting nuclear weapons, which some claim is in response to Sweden joining NATO. However, there is actually a different explanation for these images – which have already been taken out of context in the past. Similar videos are posted every year showing preparations for a military parade held annually in Russia on May 9.
How pro-Russian propaganda sites doctored a FRANCE 24 programme
A number of Russian Telegram channels have been sharing a caricature of French President Emmanuel Macron depicted as a rooster, claiming that it was broadcast by FRANCE 24 in a programme that aired on March 13. However, the image circulating is a doctored version of the cover of a French magazine called L’Hémicycle. The FRANCE 24 clip has also been doctored to include it.
Fake news about Kremlin critic Navalny aims to discredit him after his death
Since news broke on February 16, 2024 that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had died while incarcerated in the Russian Arctic, there has been a resurgence of doctored images and fake news aiming to discredit Navalny and his family. We took a look at three of the most widely spread fake news items about Navalny. None of them are true.
Why pro-Russian accounts are sharing a fake video of French farmers and manure
Pro-Russian social media users have been widely circulating what looks like a Euronews report showing French farmers dumping manure outside the Ukrainian embassy. French farmers began protesting for better pay in January and the video claims that the farmers took the drastic manure action after the Ukrainian ambassador penned a letter asking them to stop their protests. But this video is fake. It’s one of a series of fake news reports aimed at making Ukraine look bad in the eyes of the West.
Did Volodymyr Zelensky just belly dance? Sorry, no: it’s a deepfake
Does Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky actually have a secret talent for belly dancing? That’s what a number of accounts on Twitter and TikTok are saying, with video to prove it. However, it turns out that the viral video is actually a deepfake that’s been circulated by pro-Russian accounts in an attempt to discredit the Ukrainian president.
FAKE: The mayor of Riga promised to close the Riga Russian Theater
Mārtiņš Staķis did not promise to close the Mikhail Chekhov Russian Drama Theater in Riga.
FAKE: In Ukraine, women with a chemical education are being recruited for the war to prepare ‘provocations’
The Russian media quotes a Kremlin protege of the people’s militia in the so-called “LPR” that women who have an education in chemistry, biology or veterinary medicine are allegedly being recruited for the war in Ukraine. The publication adds that in this way Ukraine is preparing for “provocations” with chemical weapons.
This is a fake. There is no convincing evidence that women are being recruited into the Armed Forces of Ukraine to prepare “provocations” with chemical weapons.
FAKE: Military from AFU threatened with a gun a woman with a child because she spoke Russian
Russian media and Telegram channels are distributing a video in which Ukrainian soldiers allegedly stopped a woman with a child because she did not give way to them. As evidence, they provide a segment from the video recorder in the woman’s car. The soldiers then allegedly started yelling at the woman, cursing her, threatening her with guns and shooting in the air because she was speaking to them in Russian.
In fact, this video is staged, it was filmed in the occupied territory of the Donetsk region, where there are no Ukrainian troops.
FAKE: Only ‘pure-blooded Ukrainians’ can donate blood – photo of the announcement
An alleged announcement from the online service “Doc.ua” is being spread online that from March 1, 2023, the reception of donated blood will be carried out only when the donor is a “pure-blooded Ukrainian”. Foreign citizens are prohibited from being donors.
However, the service did not provide such announcements. In Ukraine, ethnicity is not included in the list of criteria for a potential blood donor.
FAKE: Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to create same-sex unions more often – Zaluzhnyi
A screenshot of the news, which was allegedly published on the Dialog.ua website, is being spread online. It says that Valerii Zaluzhnyi allegedly reported that the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to create same-sex unions more often.
However, this is a fake. Zaluzhnyi did not make such statements, and there is no such publication on the Dialog.ua website.
Fake Ukrainian Assassination Attempt on Tucker Carlson Reaches Millions on X
The creators of the disinformation claiming Ukraine plotted to assassinate Tucker Carlson did not intend for it to be used inside Russia: they designed it specifically to target U.S. audiences. That is evident from the fact that no major Russian state-controlled news outlets reported the “breaking news” about the alleged plot despite their weeks-long fixation on every minor detail of Carlson’s visit to Moscow.
How Russian flag hoisting signals influence operations in Nigeria
The #EndBadGovernance protest in Nigeria held in August 2024 took a new turn on its third day as some young Nigerians, particularly in the northern part of the country, were seen displaying the Russian flag, a move condemned by the federal government as âtreasonable.â
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy has not introduced a law to allow for organ harvesting without consent
The Verdict: False
The law removed the need for notarization of consent, not the need for consent, as the false post claims.
Fact Check: Italian PM Meloni Did NOT Say ‘If Russia Does Not Agree To The Terms Of The Peace Summit, We Will Force It To Surrender’ | Lead Stories
Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni say, “If Russia does not agree to the terms of the peace summit, we will force it to surrender”? No, that’s not true: The comments attributed to her come from a falsified Russian translation of what she said in English at the Ukraine Peace Summit held in Switzerland in June 2024. While Meloni has strongly criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, no credible sources report her saying that Russia should be forced to surrender.
Zelenskyy and Wife Photographed with Stacks of Money? | Snopes.com
Because the photograph was digitally edited to include Zelenskyy and Zelenska, we have rated this claim as “Fake.”
The TinEye reverse-image search tool showed that the original photograph [with stacks of money] depicted Floyd Mayweather, a former professional boxer.
FACT CHECK: IMAGE CLAIMS UKRAINIANS HIT SU-57 DECOY
Verdict: False
The satellite image is from June 7, while the attack was on June 8. The person who obtained the image also refuted the claim.
No, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy did not buy a casino resort in Cyprus
The Verdict: False
There is no evidence that President Zelenskyy bought a casino in Cyprus; the claim originated from a fake website impersonating the resort.
No, this video doesn’t show a Russian air strike on a NATO arms convoy
A video of a massive fire circulated widely on social media in late April along with captions claiming it showed a strike by the Russian army on a NATO weapons convoy en route to Ukraine. However, it turns out that this is an old video that wasn’t filmed anywhere near Ukraine.
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy Bought a Casino in Cyprus?
The claim that Zelenskyy purchased a casino in Cyprus is belied by the fact that the owners of that casino say they have not sold it, by the fact that the original reporting on the claim was based on a fake website, and by the fact that this original reporting was deleted. Because no real evidence supports the claim, Snopes rates it “False.”