Latest fact checks & sources

False and misleading information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine has spread rapidly on social media since Russian forces launched a military assault in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 24. Here’s a roundup of claims related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict analyzed by the USA TODAY Fact Check team.

On Twitter, videos from February 25 showing a military tank running over a car in the Obolon district of Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv have garnered over ten million views. But contrary to what some users claim, this is not a Russian tank deliberately running over a civilian. There are many indications that the incident actually involved a Ukrainian tank.

There is no evidence of Vesela Hora being shelled by the Ukrainian army

5 fakes of the war in Ukraine including: #1. “Celebrating the war”. Video claims to show Russian soldiers dancing before heading to the frontline in Ukraine. In reality, dancing was in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. #2. “Russian jets launching attacks” – False. Video is from video game “Arma-3”. #3. “Formation of jets over an urban areas” – Not from war in Ukraine. Video is from a 2020 Moscow air show. #4. “German news shows hundreds of Russian soldiers allegedly parachuting over the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv” – False. Old video from Russia (2016).

Ukraine haven’t trespassed Russian border and didn’t send commandos or APS’s across the border

This claim has been shared in several waves in at least three countries, but it is nothing more than an attempt at inducing panic

After Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, dramatic footage of a huge explosion was viewed tens of thousands of times in social media posts that claimed it shows buildings destroyed by Russian air strikes. In fact, the video shows a deadly blast that ripped through the Lebanese capital Beirut in August 2020.

A video of military planes flying in formation over residential buildings has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in posts that claim it shows Russian fighter jets entering neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022. The posts circulated online within hours of Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashing a full-scale ground invasion and air assault on Ukraine. The footage, however, has been shared in a false context. It has circulated since at least 2020 in social media posts about rehearsals for a Victory Day air show in Russia.

Social media posts claim a photo of a man in samurai regalia shows Japan’s ambassador to Ukraine, saying he chose to stay and fight invading Russian forces. This is false; the image pictures Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan, who tweeted it prior to the invasion.

Social media posts claim a photo of a wounded child shows a victim of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is false; the picture is from 2018 and was taken in Syria.

Despite multiple claims of a Ukrainian genocide against ethnic Russians, there is no evidence to support it. International bodies that include Russian representatives report that civilian deaths have plummeted since 2014. Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. relied on misleading and outdated evidence to back the claim. Our ruling Putin said ethnic Russians in Ukraine face genocide. His ambassador provided misleading evidence, and international observers found no activities to support the claim. Civilian deaths have plummeted to less than 1% of what they were in 2014. We rate this False.

There are no U.S.-run biological weapons labs operating in Ukraine. The U.S. Defense Department and the Ukraine Ministry of Health have had a partnership since 2005 to improve public health laboratories and prevent the threat of outbreaks of infectious diseases. That effort is part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which began in 1991 to reduce the threat of existing weapons of mass destruction programs in former Soviet Republics. Our ruling A social media user tweeted that Russia was targeting U.S.-run biolabs in its invasion of Ukraine. That account was soon suspended by Twitter. There are no U.S.-run biolabs in Ukraine. The country is one of many former Soviet Union republics, and other countries, partnering with the Defense Department as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. It’s the latest claim in a series of disinformation efforts by the Russians, an expert told PolitiFact. While the U.S. may provide funding to upgrade or build labs in other countries, the labs are run by the partnering nations and the program’s goal is to prevent biological threats, not create them. We rate this claim False.

Many posts on social media claiming to pertain to the current conflict in Ukraine are in fact videos and photos of different events in other regions that happened several years ago. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

Putin claims: “Does Ukraine need to be denazified” – false, “Is Russia’s attack a defense case under the UN Charter?” – false, “Was there a ‘genocide” in Ukraine?” – false. Russia has so far failed to provide any evidence in their claims.

The information has been spread in social networks that the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas headquarters has been practically destroyed. The news source is the post of the head of the “DPR” Denis Pushilin. However, this is fake. The adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, has already refuted it.

The Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have denied this information. The Ukrainian military did not put down their weapons and did not side with the Luhansk People’s Republic.

Ukrainians did not shoot at the Russian border checkpoint.

Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding back the Russian aggressor’s offensive.

Disinformation is part and parcel of the approach to war as seen in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

How then can the well-oiled Russian machine produce such “low-cost” disinformation? “Simply because, for the moment, the Russian authorities do not need to do better.” […] What’s more, it’s not so much the quality as the quantity of disinformation that matters. “The goal is to create so many different – and sometimes even contradictory – versions of what is happening at the border that no one can really distinguish the true from the false anymore.”