Latest fact checks & sources

The photo of empty shelves with supposedly sold-out energy-saving light bulbs was actually taken in a US supermarket at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ukrainian prisoners of war held in a detention center in Russian occupied Olenivka in eastern Ukraine could not have been fired upon from the Ukrainian side. Facts available in the public domain, international experts’ conclusions, the interceptions of Russian military conversations, all show that the Ukrainian military did not fire on the Russian prison camp where Russian invaders were keeping Ukrainian Azovstal defenders.

Russian propaganda presented a single activist’s social media post about the Ukrainian language as a popular belief held by all Ukrainians in Poland. In reality, Ukrainian refugees are not demanding that Ukrainian be made an official language in Poland. The Polish Constitution clearly states that the only official language in the country is Polish, which is spoken by a majority of people. If minorities constitute at least 20% of the total number of inhabitants of a given municipality, and their language is entered in the Official Municipalities Register, they have the right to use their own language as a secondary language. Today, the Ukrainian language does not have such a status in any of the municipalities.

The story is certainly complicated, and the information currently accessible to the public is clearly not enough to draw any conclusions. But the topic of Western russophobia was clearly added to it by the correspondent of Channel One. The publications in Spanish and Swiss media do not mention that the problem is related to the war in Ukraine. They only cite Elena’s words: “At school, the war in Ukraine is talked about a lot. They say that we, Russians, are all bad. And the girls would come home sad because of it” – without claims that it could have caused the children to be taken away. And the story that the girls are allegedly considered children of Ukrainians killed in the war is found only in Valentina Solovyova’s story.

StopFake found no evidence of Ukrainian refugees living in Europe having their children taken away from them. The German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) and the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) are not aware of any such cases in the families of Ukrainian refugees.

The lack of victims from the Russian missile attack on the Odesa port on July 23 does not excuse Russia – it still carried out another act of aggression and violated the agreements made the day before. UN representatives did not say anything about the Russian attack on “military warehouses” in the Odesa port. On the contrary, the UN has once again condemned Russian attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.

The video circulating on social media has been edited – a running line claiming that a large fire in Spain was allegedly caused by Ukrainian refugees was deliberately added on the screen. In reality, the running line reported on the driver, arrested for assaulting a passenger and driving under the influence.

The petition on the Ukrainian President’s website calling to resume the negotiation process with Russia does not reflect Ukrainian public opinion. Despite a certain degree of fatigue and constant attacks by Russia, Ukrainians remain united in their determination not to make any concessions to the aggressor. According to a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) poll conducted between July 6 and July 20, 84% of Ukrainians are not ready to make territorial concessions in order to end the war.

Verdict: False The footage was taken during a 2017 event at the University of Ghent. The event was not affiliated with NATO.

At the end of the 19th century, Ukrainian was the third most widely spoken language in Odesa, after Russian and Yiddish. According to the 1897 Russian Empire General Census, 37,925 inhabitants of Odesa declared Ukrainian as their mother tongue.

Conducting “referendums” at gunpoint is a violation of Ukrainian legislation and international law. Neither Ukraine nor any other country will recognize the results of such “voting”. Any fake “referendums” in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories are legally null and void and have no lawful consequences.

Verdict: False The photos show a set of custom-built Lego figures. A Lego spokesperson confirmed the images do not depict an official product.

Russia has fined Alphabet Inc.’s Google $373 million for allegedly promoting fake news on its platform. Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor said the content includes “fake news” about the conflict in Ukraine.

Ukrainian grain and Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports have become one of the central themes for Russian propaganda since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The range of Russian narratives on this topic is vast: from statements that Russia is “not involved” in the shelling of Ukrainian grain storage facilities and grain export port infrastructure, to stories about a “global conspiracy” against Russia, which is “not allowed to trade” grain, stolen from temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories. StopFake collected and analyzed the main Russian narratives about Ukrainian grain.

The international community does not recognize occupied Crimea or other Ukrainian occupied territories as independent republics, or the territory of Russia. Vladimir Rogov, quoted by Russian propaganda about alleged international contacts, is under European sanctions for threatening the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, and has no authority to “establish contacts” with anyone, because he does not represent any official authorities.

On July 24th Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed that Odesa was shelled by Russian armed forces. The information that a warehouse was hit with Harpoon missiles is likely untrue. The Ukrainian Military’s press office said that Russian Kalibr cruise missiles damaged a pumping station. The types of explosions that rocked the port of Odesa do not indicate that an ammunition depot was struck. The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres explicitly condemned the strikes on the port. This attack took place less than 24 hours after Russia signed an agreement freeing up grain export from Ukrainian ports.

There is no proof that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a net worth of $596 million or receives a monthly income of $11 million. Leaked financial documents showed Zelenskyy had several assets like real estate property and cars, but not enough to corroborate the claim made on Facebook. A report by Forbes found the Ukrainian president’s net worth was closer to $20 million to $30 million. Our ruling A Facebook post shared a screenshot from a website claiming to show Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s net worth as being $596 million while receiving a monthly income of $11 million and a salary of $780,000. The website featured in the Facebook post offered no corroborating evidence for the claim. Leaked financial documents showed Zelenskyy did have some assets, but nowhere near what’s being claimed on the website and Facebook post. A report by Forbes found his net worth to be much smaller, around $20 million to $30 million. We rate this False.

With Eastern Europe in turmoil following the invasion of Ukraine, a Facebook post shared hundreds of times claims Russian President Vladimir Putin is ‘in South Africa’. The post includes a video broadcast showing Putin arriving in the country for alliance talks. However, this is misleading: the video was filmed in July 2018 ahead of the 10th summit of the BRICS group, which was hosted by South Africa.

Ukrainians were not involved in any way in the video that was published by Russian propagandists showing protesters blocking traffic. It was not Ukrainians who were blocking the road to traffic, but local environmental activists from the Extinction Rebellion organization.

But a video being shared on social media a few weeks later perhaps buoyed Ukraine’s supporters. The description in the July 17 post said “Sievierodonetsk’s air defenses shot down 55 Ka 52 helicopters.” Dozens of comments cheered on Ukraine, with Ukrainian flags and GIFs congratulating the country. That’s because anyone who watches the video can clearly see that the footage isn’t authentic. It’s a video game. We rate claims of this footage’s veracity False.