Latest fact checks & sources

A nighttime video of buildings illuminated by ominous flashes of light has been viewed thousands of times globally on social media alongside a claim it shows Russian forces attacking the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. While the southeastern port city has been under heavy attack, the video was shared in a false context. The footage has circulated online months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The social media user who filmed the clip told AFP it shows a thunderstorm in the Russian town of Volzhsk.

A video of a long train transporting military vehicles has been shared on Facebook alongside a claim that the footage shows the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) sending tanks and equipment to Ukraine in support of its war against Russia. But this is false; the video has been circulating online since at least 2012 and shows a Canadian train operating in North America.

A video of Russian President Vladimir Putin ignoring his official motorcade to go for a walk has been viewed millions of times on Facebook alongside claims that it shows his frustration following a recent press briefing related to the Ukraine invasion. However, this is false; the video is from 2013 and was taken after Putin attended the funeral of his long-time judo trainer.

A Facebook post shared thousands of times in Nigeria claims that Russia has sent two nuclear bombers to Venezuela, landing them in what it describes as the ‘US backyard’. The claim, however, is misleading; while the events mentioned in a CNN report included in the post did take place, they happened in 2018 and have nothing to do with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Social media users are sharing an image of what appears to be US comic Sam Hyde in a fighter jet cockpit as proof that he is the mythical ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ responsible for shooting down numerous Russian jets amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine. This is false: while the existence of the viral ‘Ghost of Kyiv’ is unsubstantiated, AFP Fact Check found that an image of a US pilot has been edited to add Hyde’s face. This claim has nevertheless been taken seriously by some social media users who are not familiar with the US comic. It is part of a long-running hoax linking the comedian to tragic events worldwide.

Social media posts, online articles and Ukraine’s president hailed 13 of the country’s border guards as heroes, saying they were killed on a small Black Sea island after rejecting a Russian warship’s surrender demand. But Kyiv’s navy later admitted the troops were captive rather than dead, and Moscow said dozens had surrendered.

A story that claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin bombed a villa in Ukraine owned by President Joe Biden is bogus. It was created by a misinformation website that regularly publishes made-up stories. We found no evidence that Biden has a villa in Ukraine. Claims about nefarious biolabs in Ukraine ‘ some supposedly “U.S. owned” ‘ are also fabricated, and part of disinformation efforts by Russians. It’s unclear what the blog is talking about in its reference to “pedophile rings,” but it claims that Putin is wiping out “child trafficking covens” in Ukraine, and we found no evidence that these exist.

Rothschild & Co. has an office in Moscow and has been operating in Russia since the mid-1990s. Yet posts on social media falsely claim that Russia has barred the Rothschild banking family from doing business in the country. The claim is an adaptation of an old conspiracy theory about the family.

Nearly two weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the flow of false or misleading information about the war hasn’t let up and now there are some outlandish theories being shared online. Some have begun to circulate claims the war is a hoax, a media fabrication, or has been exaggerated by the West in terms of its scale. We’ve examined some of them.

Social media posts claim that three NATO countries will give 70 warplanes to Ukraine to aid the fight against invading Russian forces. This is misleading; while Kyiv said Poland, Bulgaria and Slovakia would provide the aircraft, officials from all three countries denied that they would do so.

A photo of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is circulating in Facebook posts that claim it shows him sharing a meal with soldiers resisting Russia’s invasion. The posts are misleading; the photo was taken when Zelensky visited eastern Ukraine on February 17, 2022, days before Russia launched a military operation in the country.

The viral photograph shows Anastasiia Lenna, the 2015 Miss Grand Ukraine winner, posing with an airsoft gun. She confirmed that she did not join the Ukrainian military and said she posted the staged image to inspire people. Our ruling A Facebook post claims it shows a Ukrainian beauty queen fighting against the Russians invading Ukraine. That’s not the case. Lenna did not join the Ukrainian military. She posted a photo in which she’s posing with an airsoft gun. She said the photo was meant to inspire people. We rate this post False.

Verdict: False The image dates back to at least 2016. There is no evidence it was taken in Ukraine.

As Russian troops invaded Ukraine, a video was viewed hundreds of thousands of times in social media posts that claimed it showed a huge explosion at a power plant in the separatist Luhansk region. While there have been reports of a fire at a power plant in the region, the video has been shared in a false context. It actually shows a deadly blast that ripped through the Chinese port city of Tianjin in 2015.

Facebook posts are circulating in Africa claiming to feature an image of Ukrainians kneeling and praying in the snow days before Russian troops invaded their country on February 24, 2022. In reality, the picture dates back to 2019 and shows residents of Kharkiv who had been praying every day in the city square since March 2014 when Russian separatists attacked Ukraine.

Two images of huge explosions among residential buildings have been shared hundreds of times on social media alongside a claim that they show Russia’s attack on Ukraine. But the claim is false: the photos show Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in 2018 and 2021.

Three photos have been shared thousands of times on Facebook in Tanzania and Kenya alongside a claim that they show a young Ukrainian girl confronting a Russian soldier. But this is false: the images are screenshots from a YouTube video of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi challenging an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank in 2012.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, a video of men in military uniform embracing women was viewed more than 350,000 times in social media posts that claimed it showed Ukrainians saying goodbye to loved ones before going off to fight. In fact, the footage was taken from a documentary about the 2014 conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

As Russia pressed on with its invasion of Ukraine, a photo of a Russian flag being raised at a building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, circulated in social media posts that claimed it had “fallen”. However, the photo was shared in a misleading context; the original photo — taken by Reuters news agency — is from a pro-Russian protest in 2014. As of March 2, 2022, fighting was ongoing in Kharkiv after heavy shelling.

A series of photos of children wearing military fatigues and brandishing weapons is circulating in multiple posts online which claim they are Ukrainian children training to fight after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In fact, the pictures were taken in 2015 and 2017 at a youth paramilitary camp on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.