In Monday's meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov repeated accusations against the US, NATO and Ukraine. DW takes a look at the speech and debunks some of his claims.
Poland providing Ukraine with MiG-29 fighter jets does not in any way contribute to the "destruction of Ukraine's Armed Forces". On the contrary, Poland and Slovakia's decision to transfer several dozen fighter jets to the Ukrainian military will only strengthen Ukraine's combat readiness for the expected counteroffensive. Poland is one of Ukraine's main partners in providing military assistance and training Ukrainian soldiers. Warsaw was one of the first countries to announce it would send German Leopard 2 tanks, as well as MiG-29 jets to Ukraine.
Conservative influencers in the United States are claiming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said America's "sons and daughters" will be obligated to fight and die for his country. This is misleading; Zelensky's full remarks show he was saying Russia might invade a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) country if Ukraine loses the war, implicating the alliance's members in a larger conflict.
An out of context excerpt from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's
press conference is being circulated online by Russian and US social media
users, claiming that he is calling on Americans to fight for Ukraine.
Answering questions during a press conference dedicated to the first
anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky said that
if Ukraine fails to stop Russia, then NATO countries will have to do it,
because capturing Ukraine will not stop Russia's expansionist policies
regarding its neighboring countries, including NATO members.
Chinese social media users have repeatedly shared a doctored clip of Russian President Vladimir Putin giving a speech with false subtitles that claim he said he will not step down from power until "the problem in Ukraine is settled". However, the video contains clips taken from two different addresses and audio from one of the speeches. The Chinese and English language subtitles are false translations of the speech. As of February 17, 2023, AFP has found no official reports about Putin making such an announcement.
In the battle for influence running parallel to Russia's war on Ukraine, the Kremlin has consistently taken aim at NATO. DW asked experts how the propaganda machine works.
Social media users have been circulating a video of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, claiming that the footage shows him calling on NATO to launch preventive nuclear strikes against Russia. It turns out, however, that this footage isn't new - Zelensky made these statements back in October 2022. Moreover, the translation of his statement, originally in Ukrainian, leaves out some nuance.
Online articles and social media posts claim almost 2,700 NATO soldiers and military trainers have died during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This is false; the military alliance has not deployed personnel to Ukraine and an official confirmed to AFP that none have been killed in the conflict.
A speech made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been quickly misinterpreted by many, in a video circulating on Twitter where he allegedly asks for pre-emptive nuclear strikes against Russia. Zelensky was referring to economic "strikes", not nuclear strikes. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.
As Western countries pledged to step up deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, social media users in Thailand shared a fabricated quote that the European Union's most senior diplomat Josep Borrell called to "keep using Ukrainians as our bait" in order to defeat Russia and "avenge Napoleon and Hitler". While Borrell mentioned Napoleon and Hitler in a speech about the war in Ukraine, he was speaking in the context of Russia's past military victories and did not say they should be "avenged".
