Source type Educational

No, Zelenskyy and Soros are not cousins

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and billionaire philanthropist George Soros are not cousins. ​The claim is "entirely false," said a spokesperson for Soros' Open Society Foundations.

A viral Facebook post falsely says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and billionaire philanthropist George Soros are related by birth ' one in a series of baseless claims about links between the two.

Soros has been at the center of many debunked claims about his connections to Ukraine, including that he wanted to run the country and that he was using the Ukraine "as a playing field to undermine (former President Donald) Trump's campaign," NBC News reported in 2019.

More recently, false claims have said that Soros admitted on television that he helped overthrow the former Ukrainian president in order to help Zelenskyy take office.

The NBC News story noted that Soros "has long been the target of conspiracy theorists about Jews controlling the world." Soros and Zelenskyy are both Jewish.

We rate the claim that Zelenskyy is a cousin of Soros Pants on Fire!

Read MoreNo, Zelenskyy and Soros are not cousins

Video appears to show Kenyan soldiers, not Russians

The soldiers seen in the video don't appear to be wearing Russian uniforms, an expert on land warfare said.

The uniforms appear to match those worn by soldiers in the Kenya Defence Forces.

A longer version of the video says the soldiers are members of the Kenyan military.

Our ruling
A video claimed to show Russian soldiers fleeing for safety after failing to fire a rocket-propelled grenade.

One expert told us the soldiers in the video don't appear to be Russian, based on their uniforms and lack of armbands. The uniforms do not seem to match ones in photos we found of Russian soldiers.

The uniforms appear to match those worn by the military in Kenya, based on images and a longer version of the video found on YouTube. We rate this claim False.

Read MoreVideo appears to show Kenyan soldiers, not Russians

There is no evidence that Putin invaded Ukraine to fight child trafficking

This claim originated in an article published by a website known for sharing misinformation, including one previous false claim on Ukraine.

• Russia's president stated many reasons for the invasion. Ending child trafficking was not among them.

• According to the U.S. State Department, Russia is failing to deal with human trafficking within its own borders.

Our ruling
A post on Facebook alleged that Russia started its invasion of Ukraine to fight child trafficking.

The claim originates in an article published by a website known for fabricating stories and sources.

There is no evidence that ending child trafficking is a goal of the war in Ukraine. Russia itself is failing to deal with human trafficking within its own borders, according to a report by the U.S. State Department.

And while Putin has been very descriptive about his reasons for invading Ukraine, child trafficking has never been mentioned.

We rate the post False.

Read MoreThere is no evidence that Putin invaded Ukraine to fight child trafficking
Social Media Posts Misrepresent Victims of Hospital Bombed in Mariupol

Social Media Posts Misrepresent Victims of Hospital Bombed in Mariupol

Russian planes bombed a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 9, killing three people and injuring at least 17, including two pregnant women seen in photos shared around the world. Social media posts falsely claimed one woman “posed” as the two women. One of the women died of her injuries, along with her baby; the other gave birth to a daughter.

Read MoreSocial Media Posts Misrepresent Victims of Hospital Bombed in Mariupol

This video is from a climate change protest in Austria. It doesn’t show crisis actors in Ukraine

The people under the tarps aren't crisis actors from Ukraine trying to fool people into thinking they are dead. They were part of a protest against climate change that was held in Vienna, Austria, on Feb. 4.

The clip is from a Feb. 4 demonstration against climate change in Vienna. The reporter, Marvin Bergauer, is from an Austrian news channel called OE24 TV and is speaking German in the video. An English translation of the chyron on the video says "Vienna: Demo against climate policy."

The people under the tarps aren't crisis actors ' from Germany, Ukraine or anywhere else ' trying to fool people into thinking that they are dead. They're protesters from Austria in a video taken before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

We rate this False.

Read MoreThis video is from a climate change protest in Austria. It doesn’t show crisis actors in Ukraine

Ukraine crisis: A low-cost disinformation campaign aids Putin’s playbook

How then can the well-oiled Russian machine produce such "low-cost" disinformation? "Simply because, for the moment, the Russian authorities do not need to do better." [...]

What’s more, it’s not so much the quality as the quantity of disinformation that matters. "The goal is to create so many different – and sometimes even contradictory – versions of what is happening at the border that no one can really distinguish the true from the false anymore."

Read MoreUkraine crisis: A low-cost disinformation campaign aids Putin’s playbook