There are no vouchers issued as “payment for service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. Russian propagandists took a military bond Ukraine issued in 2014 and created fake, claiming that this document is issued to Ukrainian military in lieu of salary payments.

A video of a flock of birds swooping over a freeway in the US state of Texas has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in online posts that falsely claim it shows a murder of crows in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in January 2023. The claim circulated online during the 11th month of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In a video circulating on social media, some users claim to show American M1 Abrams tanks and military infantry vehicles in Poland, allegedly heading to Ukraine. These false claims began to circulate online on January 25, when President Joe Biden announced that US Abrams tanks would be delivered to Ukraine. We tell you where this video was actually filmed in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Although some users in Russia said they were unable to access the site on Monday, January 30, it turned out to be a technical issue impacting just several regions, according to an official statement from the OnlyFans press team. Therefore, we rate this claim as False.

Claims that electricity is redirected from schools and kindergartens to elite resorts is a manipulative distortion of reality. For two days in a row, several towns in the Khust district of the Transcarpathian region allegedly were not affected by the regional power outage schedules. According to the Transcarpathian Regional State Administration chairman, there are indeed recreation centers in these towns. However, it is extremely difficult to establish a causal relationship between these events, since recreation centers are located throughout all of Transcarpathia, and not only in the Khust region. It is impossible to selectively reroute electricity from schools and kindergartens to recreation centers.

A recent Russian fake cites a Newsweek article which allegedly claims that the US is colonizing Ukraine for its titanium reserves. The Newsweek article however does not contain a single word about any such colonization. On the contrary, the article claims that Russia could launch large scale military operations against Ukraine also with the aim of seizing the country’s mineral deposits.

Russian unleashed a full-scale war against Ukraine, occupied Crimea and other territories, thus making Russian military bases located in occupied Crimea legitimate targets for the Ukrainian military. The narrative that “NATO is fighting against Russia” is one of the most widespread Kremlin fakes that Stopfake has repeatedly debunked. Ukraine is standing up to Russian aggression and fighting the Russian invading forces, and not some “collective West”.

Mykola Tyshchenko, a Ukrainian MP, has been expelled from the war-torn country’s ruling party over a trip to Thailand earlier this month. The trip came to light through an encounter that was organised with the MP by the Ukrainian embassy in Thailand. Traces of this event were later deleted online. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Russian media reports claiming the United Nations is not pleased with the West providing tanks to Ukraine are a manipulation. UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said that the processes currently observed in Russia’s war against Ukraine are not leading to peace. However, he did not express “dissatisfaction” with the supply of Western tanks to Ukraine. On the contrary, Dujarric emphasized that he meant “a just peace in accordance with the UN Charter and in accordance with international law.” This, in turn, entails the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the entire territory of Ukraine within its 1991 internationally recognized borders.

Russian media are claiming that mass demonstrations took place in Munich against German tank supplies to Ukraine. This is a manipulation of a demonstration against something completely different. In the video from the Munich demonstration, there is not a single sign against Germany sending tanks to Ukraine. Such demonstrations, organized by the group München steht auf, are held regularly in the Bavarian capital, usually on Wednesdays. München steht auf is a group that advocates for a world without weapons, they are against vaccinations, against measures for coronavirus containment, and against the German government. The protesters are so-called Querdenkers – “dissenters.” During the coronavirus pandemic, they often disseminated fakes about COVID-19, “harmful vaccinations”, chipping, 5G radiation, and airplane vapor trails conspiracy theories.

Congress has approved about $111 billion in aid to Ukraine since the country was invaded by Russia in February 2022. During a 20-year entanglement in Afghanistan, the U.S. spent between $825 billion and $2.3 trillion, depending on the source of the estimate and what’s being included. Even taking the lower estimate of $825 billion, the U.S. would have spent $714 billion more in Afghanistan than in aid to Ukraine. We rate the claim that the amount the U.S. has spent in Ukraine is “double the U.S. expenditure for its own war in Afghanistan” False.

Germany recently said it will supply 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Soon after that, videos surfaced online purporting to show the tanks already en route to the embattled country. DW investigates.

Verdict: False There is no evidence NATO has undertaken “Operation Justice.” Check Your Fact has previously debunked claims that NATO is intervening in Ukraine.

Verdict: False There is no evidence that the Russian Navy has retreated from any body of water. The Ukrainian Navy has reported that several Russian ships remain in the Black Sea.

Russian social media channels and media are sharing a doctored video that alleges Poland will form army units of “non-traditional orientation”. We disprove these claims in this edition of Truth or Fake.

This story was fabricated. It appeared on Real Raw News, a site that regularly publishes false, fantastical stories authored by someone using a pseudonym. Real Raw News stories are authored by someone using a pseudonym and the site has a disclaimer saying it contains “humor, parody and satire,” though the author has defended his stories as truth. We found no credible news reports or other sources to corroborate the claims in this post. QAnon promotes a number of conspiracy theories that invoke pedophilia and a Democratic cabal. QAnon adherents were present during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. These ideas also infiltrated political discourse as recently as the 2022 midterm elections. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

A doctored image is being circulated online. According to the Stuttgart Airport press service, the monitor featured in the doctored image only broadcasts commercial advertisements or periodic notifications to passengers about security checks and operational changes.

Did a Polish news channel really broadcast a weather map showing Poland expanding into Ukrainian territory? Or the TV report on how the Polish army was creating an LGBT paramilitary unit? Both of these video reports do feature the logo of a Polish public broadcaster. But there are a lot of clues that make it pretty clear that these ‘reports’ are fake.

The Washington Post has not written that the West is sending soldiers to Ukraine. On the contrary, the article Russian media refer to focuses on International Legion foreign fighters who voluntarily go to war – each for his own reasons. None of the countries that are currently providing military aid to Ukraine have expressed readiness to send troops to participate in hostilities, nor has Ukraine ever asked that they do.

A doctored video is circulating online making an outrageous linguistic claim against Ukrainians. StopFake analyzed the video and found it to be doctored. Russian propagandists edited a false claim into the ticker of a legitimate news story from Ukrainian television.