Latest fact checks & sources

Claim: The viral video shows Indian Air Force fighter jets escorting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aircraft as he enters Indian airspace during his recent visit to India. Fact: The video is from December 2017 and shows Russian Su-30 fighter jets escorting President Putin’s aircraft during his visit to the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria. Hence, the claim is FALSE.

An image recently shared on social media claimed to show Russian President Vladimir Putin visiting the Ram Temple in Ayodhya along with PM Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath. However, in its investigation, the PTI Fact Check Desk found that the image is not genuine and has been AI-generated. No official or credible report confirms such a visit. An AI-generated image of Russian President Putin visiting the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was falsely shared as real to mislead viewers.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to India, an image has surfaced on social media claiming to show him posing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. […] NewsMobile verified the claim and found that the image is AI-generated.

Claim: Russian President Vladimir Putin has started reading the Bhagavad Gita after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted him a copy during his visit to India. Fact: The claim is false. While PM Modi did gift Putin a Russian-language Bhagavad Gita, the viral photo of him reading it on a plane is AI-generated.

A photo circulating online that appears to show Russian President Vladimir Putin holding the Bhagavad Gita, aboard an aircraft is not real and has been created using artificial intelligence.

The video dates back to December 2017, when Putin visited the Russia-run Hmeimim Air Base in Syria.

From our investigation, we can say that the claim is false. The viral video doesn’t show IAF jets escorting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aircraft through the Indian skies. The video is old. It shows the Russian fighter jets escorting President Putin’s plane during his visit to Syria in December 2017.

Claim: The video shows IAF fighter jets escorting Russian President Putin’s aircraft as it enters Indian airspace. Fact: The claim is false. The video shows Putin’s unannounced visit to Syria, where Russian Su-35 jets escorted his aircraft in 2017.

A video showing fighter jets covering the presidential aircraft of Russian President Vladimir Putin is being shared online with a false claim that it shows Indian Air Force (IAF) jets escorting him in Indian airspace during his recent visit. BOOM found that the video is from 2017 when Putin visited Syria accompanied by fighter jets of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

After families of Indian nationals reportedly “duped” into joining Russia’s war with Ukraine pressed authorities for help in bringing them home, an AI-generated video was shared in posts falsely claiming it showed one of the men recruited into the Russian army pleading for help from India’s government. The video and several similar clips previously circulated with a disclaimer on a Facebook page that shared other content made with AI.

We can conclusively say that the viral clip claiming to show an Indian youth trapped in the Russia-Ukraine conflict is AI-generated.

An artificial intelligence (AI) generated video claiming to show an Indian youth from Haryana fighting for the Russian Army and desperately pleading for help from the Indian government, is circulating online as a real video.

Multiple social media users recently shared the video claiming it showed a youth from Haryana trapped in the Russia-Ukraine war and pleading for rescue. However, the PTI Fact Check Desk found that the video is AI-generated and was falsely shared as real, despite genuine reports of Indian citizens being lured into the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

President Donald Trump claimed on social media on Sunday that “UKRAINE ‘LEADERSHIP’ HAS EXPRESSED ZERO GRATITUDE FOR OUR EFFORTS” in relation to the war there. Trump’s claim is not even close to accurate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed gratitude to the United States on dozens of occasions – 78 examples are listed below – since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of his country in early 2022. And Zelensky has repeatedly expressed gratitude to Trump personally since Trump was elected again last fall.

Did President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy invest $500 million or $1.5 billion “of his own money” in “a ski resort in Western Ukraine”? No, that’s not true: Social media posts misattribute publicly known investment amounts about such a project. Talking to Lead Stories, the project’s developer denied not only Zelenskyy’s participation but also the presence of any direct government funding. Investment firm BlackRock, named in social media posts as one of the key investors, denied any involvement, too. Lead Stories found no credible sources linking Zelenskyy’s personal money to the Ukrainian ski resort project.

The Bonpertuis plant didn’t fall victim to anti-Russia sanctions, but to the broader slump in Europe’s steel sector – a squeeze that has left smaller mills unable to absorb soaring costs or finance the large-scale investments required to stay competitive.

Claim: Images authentically show dogs with blue fur near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine. Rating: True. Context: Dr. Jennifer Betz, medical director for the Dogs of Chernobyl program, said there is a “0% chance that the blue color is related to radiation.”

Claim by Viral social media post: Zelenskyy is Faking Blackouts to Secure More European Aid StopFake rating: Outages across Ukrainian cities stem from voltage fluctuations and emergency shutdowns triggered by Russia’s systematic strikes on the country’s civilian energy infrastructure.

StopFake Fake: Charlie Hebdo Mocked Macron’s Ukraine Policy and Pokrovsk … Claim by Viral social media post: Charlie Hebdo Mocked Macron’s Ukraine Policy and Pokrovsk Fighting StopFake rating: The covers are entirely fabricated; the French magazine has never published the cartoons in question.

Claim by Viral social media post: Bloomberg Published an Infographic Showing How Zelensky “Looted” France StopFake rating: Bloomberg did not post such an infographic.