Claim: A video that went viral in July 2023 authentically depicted an ad in Japan that read "Stop Zelenskyy, Stop War."
Rating: Fake
Context: The video was posted in October 2020, before the Russian attack on Ukraine, and was digitally edited.
Pro-Kremlin media are actively spreading misinformation about the 37th US President Richard Nixon's alleged prediction of war in Ukraine. Referring to Nixon's declassified letter to the 42nd American President Bill Clinton, Russian media claim that Nixon predicted an "American" Revolution of Dignity and an "American" war in Ukraine.
Social media posts claim a video depicts Ukrainian soldiers surrendering to the Russian army. This is false; the clip shows a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Wagner mercenaries in late May 2023 near the city of Bakhmut.
Russian claims that Ukrainians would like a president like Vladimir Putin are false. After Russia's occupation and annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of hostilities in Donbas in 2014, Putin's standing among Ukrainians plummeted and reached a minimum after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This is not true. The disinformation was spread because of an interview with the head of Lviv Regional Territorial Center for Drafting and Social Support. In it, he stated that about 20% of conscripts, who must be recruited according to the Centre's plan, come voluntarily. Total mobilization or forced drafting of 80% of men was never mentioned.
No evidence was provided to support the claim Johnson blocked a peace agreement, and the claim that Russia withdrew its forces from Kyiv due to an agreement with Zelensky is widely disputed by political and military experts.
Newsweek has put each of the claims it investigated to RFK Jr.'s spokespeople via email. There has been no response as of the time of publication.
Unless RFK Jr. can provide substantive proof to support some of his arguments, the claims the Democratic hopeful made on Fox News simply do not match the facts.
A video has gone viral on social media, with users claiming it shows proof that the destruction of a historic cathedral in Odesa on the night of July 22 to 23 was staged by Ukrainian authorities. They argue that a woman in the video picks up the debris with too much ease for it to be real. However, the woman is actually picking up a light material, most likely polystyrene, so this does not prove that the attack was staged.
A video appearing to show an explosion has circulated widely in social media posts that misleadingly claim it captured the moment the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine was destroyed in June 2023. The footage was in fact taken in 2022 when another explosion occurred at the dam during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
While footage and claims from Wagner should be treated cautiously, it stands to reason that had the video depicted a mass surrender, then Prigozhin or his representatives would have heralded that fact and not a prisoner exchange.
In short, based on footage from the Wagner Group and other news sources, Newsweek can confirm the aerial footage is not of a Ukrainian mass surrender.
European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Josep Borrell did not ask Russia to lower the price of grain for the sake
of "fair competition". In public speeches, the diplomat has said Russia is
causing a global food crisis and that Moscow's actions would lead to a
global rise in prices.