“Bellingcat: Ukrainian military offensive failure and HAMAS attack linked,” opening text on the video claimed. But the BBC never published that report, and the underlying claim is unsubstantiated.
CLAIM: A video shows a BBC News report confirming Ukraine provided weapons to Hamas.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The widely shared video clip is fabricated. Officials with the BBC and Bellingcat, an investigative news website that is cited in the video as the source, confirm that neither outlet has reported such a claim. Experts say there is no evidence of Hamas making such a claim, either, and say there is no reason for Ukraine to arm the militant group.
Russian propaganda channel RT Arabic asked the Israel's IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee about "Ukraine providing Western weaponry to Hamas" several times.
Lt. Colonel Adraee replied: "I do not comment on such fabrications and lies.”
The U.S. did not accidentally send Ukraine $6 billion in military aid, as some online have alleged. This claim misinterprets a Pentagon announcement in June that the agency had overestimated the value of weapons it sent to Ukraine.
As Congress debates additional support for Ukraine, the anti-Ukraine echo chamber will peddle myths and half-truths, including these four:
Myth: Washington is writing Kyiv “blank checks” that Americans cannot afford.
Myth: There is not enough oversight of US aid to Ukraine.
Myth: America is exponentially the largest donor to Ukraine.
Myth: Russia is a distraction. The US must focus on China.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told CBS News' "Face the Nation" he does not believe concerns over a lack of accountability and oversight on U.S. military aid to Ukraine hold water.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul: "It’s imperative the American people know about the existing accountability mechanisms [on US assistance to Ukraine], including third-party monitors such as Deloitte, and the robust oversight being conducted by Congress, and in particular, this committee."
The U.S. did not accidentally send $6.2 billion to Ukraine. An overestimation of the cost of some military hardware meant that $6.2 billion was not spent in the transfer of U.S. stocks to Ukraine.
While the DOD has said that this can now be used toward future stock drawdowns authorized by the president, that does not mean $6.2 billion has been sent accidentally, and all that implies, to Ukraine.
The U.S. committed about $78 billion in humanitarian, financial and military assistance to Ukraine from January 2022 to February 2023, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German-based research organization that tracks nations' support of Ukraine, reported.
The U.S. total included $47 billion in military aid. That figure ranked highest among all nations and 14th as a percentage of gross domestic product.
A Pew Research Center poll in June of U.S. adults age 18 and older found that 31% of respondents said the U.S. is providing the right amount of aid to Ukraine, 28% said too much and 16% said not enough.
The Pentagon did not say that it mistakenly sent Ukraine $6.2 billion in cash.
We rate the Facebook post False.
Congress has approved about $111 billion in aid to Ukraine since the country was invaded by Russia in February 2022.
During a 20-year entanglement in Afghanistan, the U.S. spent between $825 billion and $2.3 trillion, depending on the source of the estimate and what's being included.
Even taking the lower estimate of $825 billion, the U.S. would have spent $714 billion more in Afghanistan than in aid to Ukraine.
We rate the claim that the amount the U.S. has spent in Ukraine is "double the U.S. expenditure for its own war in Afghanistan" False.
