As of the time of writing (August 1, 2023), it far too soon to judge the ultimate success of Ukraine's current counteroffensive.
Anyone making confident predictions at this point in time is just guessing. As unsatisfying as it might be, we will just have to wait and see.
Social media posts claim footage of people easily removing debris from a Ukrainian cathedral after a Russian air strike proves the attack was faked. This is false; AFP and other news outlets covered the destruction, and the original video appears to show a woman carrying pieces of lightweight insulation.
A video circulating online appears to show a prominent digital billboard in Japan saying, "Stop war" and "Stop Zelenskyy." But the clip has been doctored; the sign featured people -- not the anti-Ukraine message -- in otherwise matching footage posted to YouTube in 2020, prior to Russia's invasion.
The photo in the tweet is not of an organ harvesting site in Kharkiv, but an exhumation in Lyman, Ukraine, from October 2022.
The photo depicts the uncovering of a mass grave in Lyman about a week after Ukrainian troops reclaimed the formerly Russian-occupied city. It has nothing to do with the material the tweet describes.
False. The video of the anti-Zelensky billboard in Shibuya, Japan, is fake. It was edited from a popular clip that's been on YouTube for more than two years and viewed more than eight million times. There is no evidence that any such billboard has been displayed in Shibuya, one of the busiest and most popular neighborhoods in Tokyo, Japan.
Pro-Russian social media accounts have been widely sharing a video that they claim shows Ukrainian soldiers surrendering to the Russian army en masse. The video, however, actually shows a prisoner swap between the Russian state-funded paramilitary group, the Wagner Group, and the Ukrainian army in May 2023.
Russia's propaganda machine periodically disseminates fake French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo magazine covers, to buttress the disinformation narrative the Kremlin in currently pushing. Whatever Russian media and its acolytes claim, there is no Charlie Hebo cover dedicated to Ukrainian Fencer Olha Kharlan.
Pro-Kremlin media are actively spreading misinformation about the 37th US President Richard Nixon's alleged prediction of war in Ukraine. Referring to Nixon's declassified letter to the 42nd American President Bill Clinton, Russian media claim that Nixon predicted an "American" Revolution of Dignity and an "American" war in Ukraine.
Social media posts claim a video depicts Ukrainian soldiers surrendering to the Russian army. This is false; the clip shows a prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Wagner mercenaries in late May 2023 near the city of Bakhmut.
Russian claims that Ukrainians would like a president like Vladimir Putin are false. After Russia's occupation and annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of hostilities in Donbas in 2014, Putin's standing among Ukrainians plummeted and reached a minimum after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.