The young girl pictured in the photograph taken at the Zaporizhzhia Children's Hospital is 13-year-old Milena, who was evacuated from Mariupol. This photograph was published in the French newspaper Liberation. After being wounded in the jaw, Milena was placed in an induced coma. As of March 26, some 65,000 people were able to escape the besieged port of Mariupol through Ukrainian organized humanitarian corridors.
A video viewed more than a million times has been shared alongside a claim it shows Russian troops parachuting into Ukraine following Moscow's invasion of its pro-Western neighbour in February 2022. While there have been reports of Russian paratroopers being deployed as part of the invasion, this video has circulated since 2014 in a social media post about a military exercise conducted in Russia.
A video of a violent clash between demonstrators and police officers has been viewed tens of thousands of times on social media alongside a claim it shows Russians protesting against Putin's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. But while thousands were detained across Russia over Ukraine protests, the video had been shared in a misleading context. The footage has previously circulated in reports since January 2021 about a Chechen student who fought with riot police in Moscow during protests calling for the release of a Kremlin critic.
An Iron Cross visible on some of Zelenskyy's military green T-shirts is not a Nazi symbol. It represents the official emblem of Ukraine's armed forces and includes the country's coat of arms in the center.
The Iron Cross is a commonly used, famous German military medal. It's not a hate symbol on its own. It was turned into a Nazi symbol when the regime superimposed a swastika in the center.
Our ruling
Social media posts claim that a Nazi symbol can be seen on Zelenskyy's T-shirts.
This is wrong. The symbol visible on Zelenskyy's shirt is the official emblem of Ukraine's military and doesn't represent a Nazi Iron Cross.
We rate the claim False.
A Facebook post claims that Russia created its own version of McDonald's after the fast-food chain temporarily shut down operations in the country in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This is misleading; DonMak opened in Ukraine's separatist-controlled cities of Donetsk and Luhansk a few years after Russia's conflict with Ukraine in 2014. The images in the post were taken in Ukraine, not Russia, several years ago.
A video of military helicopters hoisting tanks into the air has been viewed millions of times in Facebook posts that claim it shows a Russian attack on a military base in Ukraine. The clip circulated as Russia intensified attacks in Ukraine. However, the footage actually shows a military exercise in the Netherlands in 2018.
Fact Crescendo found out the image viral on social media claiming Prez. Zelensky showing the "V sign" gesture over Putin's head was actually a digitally altered meme. The meme was digitally created using two separate stock images taken during the Normandy Four Summit held in France 2019 in which Russian and Ukrainian leaders were seen posing separately along with French Prez. Emmanuel Macron
The soldiers seen in the video don't appear to be wearing Russian uniforms, an expert on land warfare said.
The uniforms appear to match those worn by soldiers in the Kenya Defence Forces.
A longer version of the video says the soldiers are members of the Kenyan military.
Our ruling
A video claimed to show Russian soldiers fleeing for safety after failing to fire a rocket-propelled grenade.
One expert told us the soldiers in the video don't appear to be Russian, based on their uniforms and lack of armbands. The uniforms do not seem to match ones in photos we found of Russian soldiers.
The uniforms appear to match those worn by the military in Kenya, based on images and a longer version of the video found on YouTube. We rate this claim False.
A TikTok video of a man smoking a cigarette in what appears to be a truck full of body bags has been viewed thousands of times in Facebook posts suggesting that deaths are being staged in the war in Ukraine. The claim is false; the clip shows the behind-the-scenes making of a music video for a song released by Russian rapper Husky in September 2020.
Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's virtual meeting with US Congress, social media posts shared hundreds of times claimed he was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a "Nazi symbol". In fact, the symbol represents the Ukrainian military, according to an image comparison. A representative for the Ukrainian embassy in Thailand said it did not relate to Nazism.