Latest fact checks & sources

The claim: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was killed in Ukraine on Jan. 3. Our rating: False Austin is alive. […] Austin resumed his full duties as secretary of defense on Jan. 5 and released a statement on Jan. 6. The report comes from a publication that routinely publishes fabricated stories.

The claim stems from a Jan. 7 article published by the satire site, ‘Real Raw News.’

Claim: Video depicts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy dancing at an event. Fact: The viral video has been created using deepfake technology and the original video shows an unidentified man dancing. This video is being shared on social media since the year 2020. However, it is not known when and where this video was taken. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.

Was Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin killed by Russian cruise missiles in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 3, 2024? No, that’s not true: A Pentagon duty officer confirmed to Lead Stories that this claim is false. On January 1, 2024, Austin was hospitalized in Washington, D.C., due to complications from surgery and remained there as of January 10, 2024. Also, this claim is from a website that regularly publishes fabricated content often mistaken for real news.

A clip of a man belly dancing in a red costume has been digitally altered to make it appear as if the dancer is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, according to the man who is featured in the original clip and experts who said the altered version shows signs of being a deepfake.

The New York Times did not publish this article, a spokesperson for the outlet confirmed in an email to Check Your Fact.

Claim: A photo authentically shows Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking with regional leaders at an enormous but sparsely populated table. Rating: True […] Putin’s public appearances often involve abnormally long or large tables, which has been a consistent source of speculation and mockery since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

[T]he president did not threaten to deploy US troops to fight Russia if the budget was not approved. Instead, he was warning of what may happen if Russian forces were to expand into any of the NATO territories neighboring Ukraine, which the United States is bound by treaty to help.

The New York Times did not publish a headline saying Western military experts were bewildered by low civilian casualties in Ukraine. The headline in the circulating screenshot has been altered from an authentic article published by the outlet in late December on Russian airstrikes on Ukraine.

BOOM found that the video is not real and Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s face has been morphed on another dancer’s face.

The deals reached several years ago are far from perfect, but they nonetheless offer a way to talk to Russia while pressing it not to invade further.

If you’ve been brushing up on the FRANCE 24 Observers’ verification guide, then you now have the know-how to verify images with a reverse image search or check for edits with some forensic tools. You should also have the basic instincts needed to be wary when scrolling through social media. This guide will show you some more advanced verification techniques that can help you dig a bit deeper into the origins of a post or a page.

You just received a photo on WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter. The image makes you angry, sad or joyful, and the caption encourages you to share it as widely as possible. You’re a little cautious, however, because the story seems too good to be true. You are right to be careful. Here are a few tips for verifying images and tracing a photo’s origin on your own.

“It’s just that YouTube Music published the TOP artists … in Ukraine. Not a single performer in Ukrainian.” That is false. Musicians singing in Ukrainian dominated all of YouTube’s weekly charts of top artists in Ukraine in 2023 as shown in YouTube’s own data.

The Verdict: False. There is no evidence that the people of eastern Ukraine were subject to systematic extermination. […] The claim was spread widely after [Russian Foreign Affairs official] Maria Zakharova […] stated in February 2022 that there was a “systematic extermination of the Donbas population.” However, an OSCE monitoring mission active in Ukraine since 2014 has found no evidence of mass targeted killings of civilians in the Donbas region. The Russian Foreign Ministry has not provided any proof to back up Zakharova’s claim.

The caption reads, “When Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong UN met and none of them was willing to drink first.” The claim is inaccurate. The video has been edited to remove the moment that they drink. The full video shows that they did drink. The video shows the two toasted each other and then the other people at the table and then were clearly seen drinking.

WHAT WAS CLAIMED: A video shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy belly dancing at an event. OUR VERDICT: The footage is not genuine. It has been digitally altered, and President Zelenskyy’s face has been imposed onto the dancer’s using deepfake techniques.

The F-16 in the video was digitally created as part of an ad. While F-16s are being provided to Ukraine, it has not been confirmed that the aircraft are in the country’

A New York Times spokesperson confirmed the headline was ‘fabricated’ in an email to Check Your Fact

Out of the 197 fact-checking articles our team wrote in 2023, 52 of them concerned the war in Ukraine. And 50 of those highlighted pro-Russian disinformation aimed at discrediting Kyiv and the Ukrainian war effort.