A viral video circulating on Russian-speaking social media accounts claims to show weapons that Ukraine sent to Hamas before the group's attack on Israel. The same images were also used in a fabricated report belonging to a fake media investigation. In this edition of Truth or Fake, Vedika Bahl debunks these claims, with support from two weapons and open source intelligence experts.
“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.”
Social media posts claim photos show Oleksiy Reznikov partying on a yacht in the South of France days after leaving his post as defense minister of Ukraine. This is false; the image was taken near Istanbul, Turkey, in February 2020, years prior to the war with Russia.
[Trump] overstated and understated the respective amounts of financial assistance that the U.S. and European nations have allocated to help Ukraine in the war with Russia.
Trump called out Europe, which he said has not provided nearly as much financial support as the U.S. to Ukraine amid its war with Russia.
"I think that Europe has to do more," Trump said, when Welker asked if the security of the U.S. "is linked to Ukraine's security." He continued: "We're in for $200 billion. They're in for $25 billion. And it affects them more than it affects us."
Those figures are not accurate.
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.
Kyiv is not spending money hiring sex workers for injured soldiers, as the post on X claims.
The post quotes part of a BBC article about a rehabilitative service for Ukrainian soldiers run by a support organization called Veteran Hub. It does not employ sex workers and there is no evidence that funding provided to Ukraine or Ukrainian government spending has been used in this way.
Social media users are claiming a video shows Ukrainians in Kyiv cooling off under a water spray system set up during the war. This is false; the city's use of sprinklers predates Russia's invasion in February 2022.
Social media posts claim photos show a multimillion-dollar property recently purchased by the daughter of Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov. This is false; the luxury villa in Cannes, France has been on the market since October 2021, according to a real estate firm and the owners of the house.
