Latest fact checks & sources

Tens of thousands of people have watched a video posted on Facebook that allegedly shows Ukrainians kneeling as a convoy carries religious relics through the streets of Kyiv to a bunker. However, this video is actually from several years ago and shows a funeral procession for fallen soldiers in another part of Ukraine.

Russian planes bombed a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 9, killing three people and injuring at least 17, including two pregnant women seen in photos shared around the world. Social media posts falsely claimed one woman “posed” as the two women. One of the women died of her injuries, along with her baby; the other gave birth to a daughter.

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times after it was shared in social media posts with a claim that it shows “a Ukrainian soldier killing Muslim Chechens during Ukraine’s attack on Chechnya”. However, the claim is false. The clip was actually taken from the opening scene of a French feature film called “The Search”, which shows the execution of a Chechen family by Russian soldiers. The 2014 movie was set against the backdrop of the Russian-Chechen war in 1999. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was Russia – not Ukraine – that fought wars in Chechnya.

Picture showing cars with smashed windows are circulating in multiple social media posts that claim they are vehicles in Ukraine targeted after the Russian invasion for displaying stickers of the Chinese flag. In fact, the pictures were digitally altered to add the flag and were taken years before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Verdict: False The woman pictured next to Zelenskyy is not the woman who died weeks earlier. There is no evidence the woman pictured in the post accompanying Zelenskyy has died.

A photo of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wearing military gear has been shared hundreds of times in social media posts alongside a claim that it shows him on the frontline after Russia invaded the neighbouring country in February 2022. However, the claim is false. The picture actually shows Zelensky visiting Ukraine’s eastern region in April 2021, nearly a year before the Russian invasion began.

Facebook posts shared hundreds of times purport to show a photo of a Ukrainian tank in Iraq. They accuse Ukraine of hypocrisy for condemning Russia’s invasion, despite apparently having played a role in the Iraq War. In fact, the tank photo has been doctored to add a Ukrainian flag and coat of arms. While Ukrainian troops did serve in Iraq, the photo resembles images of American troops at the Iraq-Kuwait border during the Gulf War.

A video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in multiple Facebook posts that claim it shows the Russian military “storming the Ukrainian president’s house”. This is false; the clip has circulated since 2016 in reports about a raid that led to the arrest of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. As of March 14, 2022, Russian forces have not seized control of the presidential palace in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.

Videos shared on Facebook claim to show Russian President Vladimir Putin warning Nigeria to stay out of the war in Ukraine or risk entering into its own conflict. But this is false: AFP Fact Check found that the clips use false subtitle translations. One video is from 2020 and shows Putin addressing Russians about the novel coronavirus. In another, he does address Russia’s ongoing attack on Ukraine but makes no mention of Nigeria.

The document isn’t classified, and there are no direct statements in it about an attack on the Donbas. It makes references to a training camp on the opposite side of the country. Our ruling Russian officials shared a Ukrainian document on Twitter with claims that it showed secret, classified orders for a military offensive on the Donbas region in southeastern Ukraine. This is wrong. There is no proof that the document is classified, and there are no direct statements in it about an attack on the Donbas. The document makes references to a training camp on the opposite side of the country. We rate claims about a document showing a planned military offensive in the Donbas False.

Col. Oleksandr “Grey Wolf” Oksanchenko, a decorated Ukrainian pilot, was killed in combat on Feb. 25. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded him posthumously with the title of Hero of Ukraine, along with 11 other military service members. Unconfirmed reports hold that an unidentified pilot, who has come to be called the “Ghost of Kyiv,” downed six Russian planes on the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We do not find evidence that this was Oksanchenko. It’s uncertain how the Ghost of Kyiv tale originated, but we know that Ukraine’s military reported on Feb. 24 that at least six Russian planes and two helicopters had been downed. Crediting Ukrainian military, CNN and NBC soon reported five Russian planes and one helicopter had been shot down. Russia’s defense ministry denied the report, according to Reuters, and said that Ukraine’s air force defenses had been “suppressed.” Ukraine’s official Twitter account, meanwhile, promoted the Ghost of Kyiv narrative with a video that suggested the mystery pilot could have been responsible for as many as 10 downed Russian aircraft by Feb. 26. That video, too, included footage from a video game. PolitiFact did not receive a response from Zelensky’s administration about Oksanchenko and the Ghost of Kyiv claim. Finding no conclusive information tying Oksanchenko to the Ghost of Kyiv, we rate this claim False.

Russian media outlets, including Russia Today, are falsely claiming that the video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to a Kyiv hospital on March 13 was recorded last month, fuelling speculation that he has fled the country.

An image that appears to show an eBay listing for a Russian tank has been shared tens of thousands of times on social media alongside a claim Ukrainians are selling armoured combat vehicles after seizing them. The posts are false; the purported listing has been created using a stock photo that has circulated online since at least 2010. A spokesperson for eBay told AFP the listing was not genuine. According to its website, the e-commerce company does not allow military equipment to be sold on its platform.

As the civilian death toll mounted in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, a video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in social media posts that claim it shows a “staged scene of the Russian military bombing of Ukrainian civilians”. But the clip in fact shows production footage for a science fiction film released years before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the movie’s director told AFP. The scene was shot in the United Kingdom – not Ukraine.

A Facebook post has shared a broadcast video of warplanes as proof that a pair of supersonic Russian nuclear jets touched down in South Africa’s capital Pretoria amid the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. However, the claim has been shared out of context: the footage, while authentic, was taken in 2019 when Russia landed two of its heralded ‘White Swans’ strategic bombers in South Africa to ‘deepen military cooperation’ between the two nations.

Social media posts claim a video featuring a man in military uniform tearfully embracing a woman and a baby depicts a Ukrainian soldier heading to war. But the clip shows the 2018 homecoming of an American Marine who met his son for the first time.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, thousands of images showing Russian soldiers and vehicles have emerged online. Some of these images shocked viewers when they saw the flag of the Soviet Union waving on some Russian military equipment. For residents of Ukraine, a former part of the Soviet Union, the flag may represent “an expression of a desire to repress them”, according to a post-Soviet politics specialist who spoke to the FRANCE 24 Observers team.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, following months of military buildup and, as we’ve written, repeated denials by Russian officials that their country planned to invade. As is often the case with major news events, we have seen several false and misleading claims made on social media and by politicians related to the conflict.

After Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, an image of a man kissing a woman’s pregnant belly circulated in online posts that claimed it shows a Ukrainian soldier kissing his “unborn child goodbye” as he prepared to fight for his country. But the image — which has been shared hundreds of times — has circulated in a false context. It was originally published by the Slovakian defence ministry in a 2012 post about soldiers returning from a mission in Afghanistan.

Social media posts claim US President Joe Biden’s administration is leaving the country’s southern border exposed by asking guards protecting it to deploy to Europe to assist Americans fleeing Ukraine. But US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says the claim incorrectly conflates different branches of the agency, and that the personnel in question are not primarily tasked with guarding against illegal border crossings and smuggling.