Latest fact checks & sources

The quote that circulated online was correctly attributed to Hill. At the time of this writing, Snopes could not independently verify whether the U.S. had carried out the swap Hill said Russia wanted in 2019 or whether such a deal made the Trump administration’s January 2026 capture of Maduro possible.

Following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro by US forces in January 2026, a video of military aircraft flying in formation surfaced in social media posts falsely claiming it shows Russia evacuating its diplomats’ families from its South American ally. The footage in fact first circulated in October 2025 and corresponds to photos and videos of a US military drill in California marking the founding of the Marine Corps.

Social media users falsely shared an old video of a drone strike in Ukraine, claiming it showed India’s retaliation against attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh. The PTI Fact Check Desk found that the visuals are months old and have been misrepresented through a misleading, inflammatory narrative.

Multiple social media users shared a video featuring fire at a structure, apparently set by a drone, claiming that Ukraine attacked Putin’s residence with drones. However, the Desk concluded that the video actually dates back to 2023 and is not related to any attack on Putin’s residence.

We could not independently verify other details about the footage. However, it dates back to May 2023, and hence unlinked to the recent Russian allegations on Ukraine.

A Kyiv Post fact check investigating Russian claims that Ukraine recently attempted to eliminate Russian President Vladimir Putin by launching drone swarms at his personal residence found little evidence that the attack overnight Sunday-Monday ever took place beyond the Kremlin’s own claims.

Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War found no proof for claims made by Russia regarding a Ukrainian drone attack on Putin’s residence.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded a trip to India in December 2025, AI-generated images were shared in posts claiming they showed him at religious sites with the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and firebrand Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath. There were no official reports of Putin travelling to the sites, nor were they listed on an itinerary shared by India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

Does a viral picture of what looks like an Israeli passport confirm that Volodymyr Zelenskyy became an Israeli citizen before he became president of Ukraine? No, that’s not true: The image got the spelling of his last name wrong. The machine-readable text on the bottom of the first page didn’t fit the internationally standardized form, either.

The video showing Volodymyr Zelensky near Kupyansk was not staged. The president’s visit to the frontline city on December 12, 2025, was documented by official announcements, footage from the scene, and coverage by independent media, while OSINT analysts independently confirmed the location through geolocation. The clip promoted by propagandists as evidence of a “hologram” or green-screen effect is unrelated archival material from 2022, originally produced for a technology demonstration, and has no connection to Zelensky’s address from the field.

A social media post recently went online claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin had criticised the Narendra Modi government in a message written in the official visitors’ book at Rajghat during his visit. However, the Press Trust of India’s Fact Check Desk found the claim to be misleading in its investigation. In his original message, as verified by credible news reports and the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official release, the Russian President praises Mahatma Gandhi and speaks of shared values between India and Russia. At no point did he mention or criticise the current Indian government.

Did the late Rob Reiner publicly say he was developing a television series about Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump called “The Spy and the Asset”? Yes, that is true: Reiner announced the project in 2020 on the Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC. He again talked about it on the Dean Obeidallah Show on Sirius XMradio in 2021.

Russian President Vladimir Putin remained in New Delhi during his two-day visit. Viral images claiming to show him visiting Ayodhya and Ujjain with PM Modi, bathing in the Ganges in Varanasi, and reading the Gita on a plane are AI-created.

A photograph widely shared on social media claims to show Russian President Vladimir Putin visiting a temple with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. NewsMobile investigated the viral picture and found that it is AI-generated.

Claim: A viral notification claims India asked Russia to replace S-400 systems destroyed in a conflict with Pakistan in May 2025. Fact: There is no credible evidence supporting this claim and the notification had clear discrepancies and has been debunked by PIB

Claim: The image shows NSA Ajit Doval meeting Mikhail Khodorkovsky in London. Mikhail is a Putin critic and an exiled Russian oligarch. Fact: The claim is false. The image has been generated using AI.

Russian President Vladimir Putin remained in New Delhi during his two-day visit. Viral images claiming to show him visiting Ayodhya and Ujjain with PM Modi, bathing in the Ganges in Varanasi, and reading the Gita on a plane are AI-created.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India for defence and trade talks on December 4, an old video surfaced in social media posts falsely claiming it showed New Delhi sending fighter jets to escort the leader’s plane. The footage was published by Russian state news agency Sputnik in December 2017 and shows Putin’s plane being escorted by Russian jets en route to Egyptian capital Cairo after a visit to Syria.

The viral image showing Vladimir Putin posing with the Bhagavad Gita on a plane is AI-generated and not real.

French Decree No. 2025-1030 – the document Russian outlets point to as proof of Paris allegedly greenlighting a private military company for Ukraine – does nothing of the sort. Instead, it outlines rules for civilian economic operators conducting training and technical missions as part of international military cooperation, with no connection to PMC deployment.