Ukraine has not banned the use of the Russian language in the country. A 2019 law established Ukrainian as the official language of Ukraine and strengthened its use in businesses, schools and the media. Our ruling Lavrov referenced the banning and prohibition of Russian in Ukraine, particularly in “education, the media, everyday contacts,” during a press conference. Despite a language law that establishes Ukrainian as the country’s official language and prioritizes its use in civil society, Russian has not been banned. We rate Lavrov’s statement False.

Verdict: Misleading The image is from a 2016 video that allegedly shows soldiers from the Ukrainian Azov Regiment threatening Dutch citizens over a referendum. The Azov Regiment denied the video was created by them.

Shortly after Russia launched its brutal war against Ukraine, rumors began circulating about Vladimir Putin’s health. It’s not the first time.

Footage that appears to show helicopters obliterated by missiles has racked up tens of thousands of views in social media posts that claim it shows combat between Russian and Ukrainian forces. While some social media users appeared to believe the clip was genuine, it was taken from war video game series Arma.

A video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in social media posts that claim it is a report by German tabloid newspaper Bild about Ukrainian refugees who burned down a house while attempting to set fire to a Russian flag. However, the claims are false; AFP found the video had been fabricated using unrelated old clips to look like a real Bild production. A spokesperson for the newspaper confirmed the report was not genuine.

This isn’t a real video showing the Ukrainian military shooting down Russian helicopters. It’s a simulation from the Arma 3 video game. Using keyword searches we found the same video on YouTube, which described the scene as a simulation from Arma 3, a military tactical shooter video game that’s been used several times in false claims about the fighting in Ukraine. The same Facebook account posted another video titled “Rus_sian Helicopter Convoy firing at U_kraine Military Base.” It, too, is from the same game and doesn’t depict real-life combat. We rate these posts False. UPDATE, June 7, 2022: We updated this fact-check to include another Facebook video misrepresenting video game footage.

The United Nations does not currently have an office in Kramatorsk. There are no UN employees in the city and all UN vehicles are registered with the proper Ukrainian offices. UN representatives told StopFake that no UN offices have been seized by Ukrainian troops anywhere.

US President Joe Biden never said that Ukraine should give part of its territory to Rusia in order to end the war that Russia has inflicted on the country. Biden has always stressed that the United States will never force Ukraine into any decision regarding a ceasefire and truce with the Russian Federation, only Kyiv should decide the terms.

Pentagon researchers have arrived in Ukraine to investigate Western technologies being used by the Russian military-industrial complex. American experts have found that nearly all advanced technology used in Russian weapons includes parts made in the United States and the European Union. Presently several countries are investigating how their production components got into Russian weapons systems and bypassed global restrictions on sending advanced technology to Russia.

According to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the law on the special status of Polish citizens in Ukraine will mirror the law adopted by the Polish parliament, the Sejm concerning assistance to Ukrainian citizens forced from their country by Russia’s war. Under this law, citizens of Ukraine have the same rights as Polish citizens, except for the right to vote. This includes the right to legally reside in Poland, travel, work and open a business without a special work permit, access to education, the public health service and social assistance, including unemployment insurance.

A video is making the rounds online claiming Ukrainians are evading military mobilization en masse. The video, however, has nothing whatsoever to do with Ukraine. It was filmed six years ago in Kazakhstan back in May 2016 and it shows local security forces detaining a protester who participated in a demonstration against government proposed land reform. Ukraine’s Ground Forces Armed Command refuted charges that Ukrainians are massively evading military mobilization. In a recent press conference, the Command’s General Staff personnel Chief Roman Horbach said there were isolated cases of military duty evasion, however they were very few and did not impact in any way on Ukraine’s overall military capacity.

The Uber transportation and mobility company has made no announcements about refusing to transport Ukrainian refugees anywhere in the world.

The U.S. has spent $53 billion on aid to Ukraine as part of a bipartisan effort to oppose Russia’s invasion of the fledgling democracy. More than $3 billion goes toward U.S. schools safety equipment and personnel every year, according to market research analysis and federal figures. Researchers largely agree that armed officers at K-12 schools do not prevent mass shootings or other gun-related incidents from happening. Instead, experts recommend threat assessment programs to help school staff identify behavioral warning signs among students and intervene to provide support before violent incidents occur. Our ruling A Facebook post claimed that with the $53 billion spent in Ukraine aid, the U.S. “could pay five SWAT members $80,000 each and have them at EVERY school front door.” The U.S. has allocated about $53 billion in aid to Ukraine. And if one wanted to pay this amount to station five SWAT members at every public and private K-12 school in the country, it would also add up to about $53 billion over one year. But that statement alone lacks context about current security funding for schools and what research shows about the effect of such measures. More than $2.7 billion is already spent each year on school safety equipment and services nationwide. And this $53 billion, if spent as the claim suggested, would cover just one year of SWAT team coverage for schools. Additionally, research shows that the presence of armed officers on campuses does not help prevent school shootings from happening. We rate this claim Half True.

Russian media and social media users allege that the Red Cross is involved in children’s organ trafficking. There is absolutely no evidence to support these allegations in the videos used to make these charges

A photoshopped picture is circulating online of two shops in Prague that allegedly refused entry to Ukrainians. The owners of the shop has denied these claims. Meanwhile, some social media users claim that Ukrainian refugees were evicted from a hotel in Bulgaria. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

After the parent company of fast-food giant KFC said it was suspending operations in Russia, social media posts shared hundreds of times purported to show a photo of a branch that “rebranded as Siberian Fried Chicken” in order to stay in business. However, the image is doctored. The original photo shows a KFC restaurant in western Russia, which has not changed its name, a spokesperson told AFP on May 26, 2022.

Despite the temporary Russian occupation, residents of Kherson and the surrounding region continue to receive all social benefits they are due. Possible delays in payments may be due to technical problems or additional processing required due to the occupation.

An image of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been shared thousands of times online alongside a claim he “has started to wear a bulletproof vest” after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Part of Putin’s wrinkled suit jacket was circled in the posts as evidence for the claim. The photo has been shared in a false context: it has circulated in reports since mid-2017, almost five years before Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

The OSCE has categorically denied that it provided communications and intelligence to the Ukrainian military based in the Azovstal plant in Ukraine’s southeastern port city of Mariupol. OSCE representatives emphasized that they never provided any additional information, except for open-source official reports, and did not support any of the parties to the conflict.

The statement says that “tracked vehicles will be transported by train” to Niinisalo and Kankaanpaa in western Finland between April 26 and May 2, 2022. The Finnish Defence Forces published details of previous Arrow exercises in Niinisalo in 2017, 2018 and 2019.