Latest fact checks & sources

In his opinion piece for the British conservative Daily Telegraph newspaper, retired British Colonel Richard Kemp does not write that Ukraine “cannot seize Crimea.” On the contrary, Kemp emphasizes that “Russia’s complete collapse is surprisingly close,” Ukraine will be able to return the Crimean Peninsula which was annexed in 2014 and “achieve the complete collapse of Putin’s forces” with the full support of its partners.

A “document” purporting to be an order for the mobilization of Ukraine’s nuclear plant workers is being disseminated online. The document is a fake as evidenced by the many errors in the text of the letter. Furthermore, some of the “signers” of this “document” are no longer members of Ukraine’s parliament. Mobilization preparation and management is not the responsibility of Ukraine’s legislative body.

Russian news sites and Russian social media accounts are disseminating fakes claiming that the bodies of more than 500 Ukrainian soldiers were found in a mine shaft at the Bogdanka coal mine in Poland. Bogdanka’s press office told StopFake such claims are completely fake, and there are no bodies anywhere on the coal mine’s territory. StopFake factcheckers have ascertained that these fake claims were originally published on an anonymous Telegram channel, which according to Ukraine’s Security Service, is used by Russian secret services to foment and incite anti-government sentiments in Ukraine.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been the subject of numerous false rumors, particularly in the form of doctored or misleading photographs and video footage. From a manipulated deepfake video of Zelenskyy supposedly telling Ukrainian soldiers to surrender to Russia to false claims he displayed Nazi logos on his clothes, there is no shortage of examples.

A video clip of Ukraine’s president is going viral, with some on social media claiming Zelenskyy said the U.S. would send soldiers to fight in Ukraine. That’s false.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not say this. During a February press conference, Zelenskyy predicted that if Ukraine loses the war, Russia will then invade a country that’s a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, forcing the U.S. to defend its allies. Ukraine borders four NATO member countries, but it is not part of the military alliance. Their ruling: Greene claimed that Zelenskyy said he wants America’s “sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine.” Zelenskyy did not say that. During a press conference, he predicted that if Ukraine loses the war, Russia will invade a NATO member country next. If that happens, Zelenskyy said, Americans would be required to “send their sons and daughters” to war because of NATO’s mutual defense treaty. He did not mention U.S. troops going to Ukraine. We rate this claim False.

There are a number of misleading elements to this tweet. Firstly, the video is not a “confession” at all. It is footage from an interview with Russian state-funded broadcaster RT. […] The tweet did not provide the necessary context for readers to be able to judge the significance of the footage, which only contained the opinions of a retired state senator.

Conservative influencers in the United States are claiming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said America’s “sons and daughters” will be obligated to fight and die for his country. This is misleading; Zelensky’s full remarks show he was saying Russia might invade a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) country if Ukraine loses the war, implicating the alliance’s members in a larger conflict.

According to social media images, Leopard 2 tanks – recently delivered to Ukraine after weeks of waiting – have been destroyed by Russia’s Wagner mercenary group. But Wagner’s head Yevgeny Prigozhin has denied the claims, and the images have in fact been around on the internet for a while. We take a closer look in this edition of Truth or Fake with Vedika Bahl.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy predicted that if Russia’s invasion of his country is successful, it will invade nearby NATO countries, triggering a war involving the U.S. military. Some conservative commentators misleadingly claimed that he’d called upon the U.S. to “send their sons and daughters to war for Ukraine and potentially die.”

Social media posts claim a man pictured trailing Volodymyr Zelensky during US President Joe Biden’s surprise trip to Kyiv was the Ukrainian leader’s secret body double or clone. This is false; other footage of the same moments shows the man is Maksym Donets, Zelensky’s bodyguard since 2019.

According to Ukraine’s Air Force, the air raid alert that sounded during the US President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv was due to the take-off of in Belarus of MiG-31K aircraft carrying Russian Kinzhal missiles. The maximum range of such missiles is more than 2,000 kilometers, which is why air raids sirens are sounded throughout the country every time Russian planes carrying those missiles take off.

Fake Russian social media posts use 2018 photo of Turkish tank destroyed in Syria.

Employees of the US consulate in Milan never published a Twitter post with the flags of Ukraine and Nazi Germany. The consulate’s Twitter account was hacked. After regaining control over the account, the hacked post was deleted.

In a video circulated by Russian media claiming it shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s double, the Ukrainian President is followed by his personal bodyguard, Maxim Donets, who has headed the Ukrainian Presidential Security Service since 2-019.

An out of context excerpt from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s press conference is being circulated online by Russian and US social media users, claiming that he is calling on Americans to fight for Ukraine. Answering questions during a press conference dedicated to the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky said that if Ukraine fails to stop Russia, then NATO countries will have to do it, because capturing Ukraine will not stop Russia’s expansionist policies regarding its neighboring countries, including NATO members.

Since the end of 2022, the FRANCE 24 Observers team has seen several similar examples of fake anti-Ukraine advertisements, reportedly on billboards in the United States and Poland. But when we took a closer look, we found some clues that convinced us these ads were fake and that the videos were edited.

In the video, President Joe Biden appears to say he’s reinstating the draft so the U.S. can help defend Ukraine against Russian forces. The video is a deepfake.

The words “big, fat, corrupt sinkhole” are not a direct quote, but an interpretation of what Gates is saying in the edited clip. As his quote shows, Gates was referring to “pre-war” Ukraine, crucial context that was omitted from the clip circulating online. It is not clear what Gates’ timeframe is for “pre-war”—it could refer to before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 or its initial invasion in 2014.

Misleading Material. The clip was removed from its important and clarifying context, giving a misleading impression of what Zelensky said. The Ukrainian leader’s remarks were a hypothetical answer about what could happen should Ukraine lose the war to Russia, partially due to decreased support from the United States. […] Zelensky did not suggest that Americans should send their children to fight now for Ukraine against Russian forces.