Latest fact checks & sources

General Valery Zaluzhny, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, recently posted a photo of himself on Twitter allegedly wearing a bracelet with a swastika. In fact, what appears to be a swastika in the photo, is actually a Viking symbol. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Did the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces publish a photo of himself wearing a bracelet with a swastika on it? That”s what some Russian media outlets and pro-Russian social media accounts have been reporting since October 9, 2022. While the photo is authentic, the compression of the image and the poor resolution quality make it possible to mistake the symbol on his bracelet for the Nazi cross. In reality, however, it is a Celtic knot.

The explosion on the Kerch bridge to Crimea triggered many theories online regarding who or what caused the explosion. Was it a boat, a missile or a truck? We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

If it’s a big and important issue, be cautious about what you share or see shared on social media.

A screenshot from a BBC report is circulating heavily on social media, with claims that the reporter is pretending to be on the frontlines whilst a woman stands casually in the background with a shopping bag. What’s true and what’s fake? We explain the details in this edition of Truth or Fake with Vedika Bahl.

After Moscow announced in September 2022 that it would call up some 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine, a video was viewed tens of thousands of times in social media posts that claim it shows a suicide bombing in Russia that targeted a recruitment officer. The claim, however, is false. While there were protests against the “partial” mobilisation in Russia, this video has circulated since at least 2021 in reports about a bombing in Syria.

When the Instagram post was shared, Congress was considering legislation that included $20 million in funding for Jackson, Mississippi’s water infrastructure. The legislation passed Sept. 30. Much more funding will be needed to completely address the problems in Jackson. Our ruling An Instagram post says Ukraine got $12 billion more in funding but Jackson, Mississippi, has not received any. At the time the Instagram post was shared, Congress was considering legislation to provide money to both Ukraine and Jackson. The legislation passed Sept. 30 and was signed into law the same day, allocating $20 million to Jackson for its infrastructure. Much more funding will be needed to fully address the city’s problems. But though the city might not have the money in hand yet because the funding was just approved, it’s misleading to say the city was completely ignored. The claim contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.

Verdict: Misleading Several costs estimates are inaccurate

An image shared on Facebook allegedly shows Russian conscripts with 19th-century era Mosin-Nagant bolt-action rifles. Verdict: Misleading While the image does feature the rifle, the photo is from a 2020 parade. It has nothing to do with the current conflict in Ukraine.

Some pro-Russian web users in West Africa have been sharing a photo that allegedly illustrates the destruction of a Ukrainian military base in Odesa on September 25. However, the photo has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Verdict: False This tweet is digitally fabricated. Trudeau did not send out this tweet.

Two American carmakers have donated 100 pickup trucks and SUVs to assist with humanitarian aid in Ukraine. But an Instagram post makes the baseless claim that the vehicles were provided at U.S. taxpayers’ expense.

Pro-Russian accounts on social media are falsely claiming that certain civilian graves found in Izium date from before the Russian occupation. In this edition of Truth or Fake, we debunk claims that the graves were staged by Ukrainian authorities.

It’s well known that foreign fighters have joined Ukrainian military units. However, claims are being made by Russian officials and media outlets of serving Nato troops on the ground in Ukraine. […] Russian media outlets haven’t provided evidence of serving Nato personnel on the ground, only pointing to the presence of individual foreign fighters on the battlefield.

The media space, especially social media platforms, has been inundated with claims that the current spread of monkeypox was linked to at least four United States biological laboratories in Nigeria.

The Russian ministry of defence has released a video claiming its forces have struck an “amphibious” Ukrainian vehicle near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. However, by geolocating the alleged target from the footage, we discovered it is in fact the remnants of a bridge built during World War II. We explain the details in this edition of Truth or Fake with Vedika Bahl.

Global media outlets widely shared a video they attributed to Russian state energy company Gazprom in articles published on September 6, 2022. The video, which was circulated online by pro-Russian users, showed the company halting its flow of natural gas to Europe. However, our journalists investigated the origins of the video and discovered that it likely wasn’t made by Gazprom.

Footage that appears to show Russian President Vladimir Putin behind bars has surfaced in social media posts claiming he was arrested on terrorism charges. However, the clip has been doctored to superimpose Putin’s face onto that of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil tycoon who spent a decade in jail. The altered video was originally published to promote a documentary that accused Russian authorities of orchestrating a series of apartment block bombings in 1999.

A strange video is spreading on Telegram and Twitter: Hospice residents in Germany are allegedly getting tattoos of Putin to take him to his death as “living voodoo dolls.” The whole thing is a fake.

In a video posted on Russian Telegram accounts, a man claims to have found a geography book for Ukrainian high school students in which the map of Ukraine has been cut in half, missing the areas occupied by Russian troops. But several clues in the video indicate that it is a fake, as confirmed to us by the book’s publisher.