The destruction in Bucha due to Russia invading Ukraine has been well-documented through news reports and photos. An image of overturned cars next to a building with intact windows doesn't disprove that.
Photographer Emanuele Satolli, who took photos at the same scene pictured in the Instagram post, told the Greek fact-checking outlet Ellinika Hoaxes that he "met several citizens and everyone told me that the cars had been overturned by Russian tanks."
Plenty of other photos Abd shot in Bucha show shattered windows, rubble from devastated buildings, streets in ruins, and human corpses ' all the real toll of a real war.
Claims that the war in Ukraine is fake are inaccurate and ridiculous. That's our definition of Pants on Fire.
In recent weeks, people have been sharing at least three videos purporting to show Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky either using cocaine or making incoherent remarks after allegedly consuming drugs. But these videos have been cut misleadingly and sometimes even digitally manipulated.
Two viral videos purported to show that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy uses cocaine. One video appeared to show cocaine on Zelenskyy's desk as he spoke, while the other appeared to show him saying that he uses the drug routinely.
The first video was doctored; in the original, there is no white substance on Zelenskyy's desk. The second video was deceptively edited; in the original, he denied using drugs.
Our ruling
Two videos claimed to show Zelenskyy either using or admitting to using cocaine.
The first video purports to show a white powder on Zelenskyy's desk as he placed a video call to Musk. But the video was doctored to include the substance, which is not in the original.
The second video appears to show Zelenskyy talking about using cocaine regularly, but the video was deceptively edited to reorder Zelenskyy's words. In reality, Zelenskyy denied using drugs.
We rate these videos Pants on Fire!
An image of Russians forming the number 55 to celebrate the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin rocketing into space has been mischaracterized to wrongly claim that it shows Ukrainian students celebrating Hitler's birthday.
Anyone confusing this shape for a swastika is mistaken. While the the numbers are made with straight lines like a swastika ' lacking the curve that's often used to write the number five ' the angles are off. The two ends of both fives point in the same direction, whereas each end of a swastika points in a different direction.
But what's more, this photo wasn't taken in Lviv in 2022. It was shot in Penza, Russia, in 2016, to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Cosmonautics Day.
The "55" can be seen at the 47 mark, and it's followed by an image of Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot who became the first person to orbit the earth on April 12, 1961.
We rate this post Pants on Fire!
This unfounded claim originated on a website known for publishing misinformation.
Putin has freed 35,000 children in Ukraine, a country he's invaded, or anywhere else. There are no credible sources nor news reports to support this.
Searching for evidence that Putin saved thousands of children, we only found articles reporting that Russian police jailed several children for leaving flowers at Ukraine's embassy in Moscow.
We rate this post Pants on Fire!
The tweet was fabricated and did not originate with CNN.
The photo in the post was taken in 2017. It was published in a March 30, 2022, story by CNN about the Azov Battalion of the Ukraine military. In that story, the photo caption says it was taken outside Kyiv on July 14, 2017, and shows "a student at a paramilitary camp for children call(ing) the rank to attention."
The AP confirmed with the photographer, Alex Masi, that it was taken at a "summer camp from 2016-17, where kids learn about the realities of war."
CNN did not tweet about "brave children" in Ukraine signing up to fight Russia, and we rate the claim Pants on Fire!
There's no credible evidence that Ukraine was behind the April 8 attack at the Kramatorsk train station. A video used to bolster this claim is fake ' it did not come from the BBC.
The claim has largely been spread by pro-Kremlin accounts following reports of civilian casualties and contradict earlier Russian posts that initially took credit for the bombing.
The Tochka-U missile used in the attack, and the serial number on it, isn't proof that it came from the Ukrainian army. Several news reports, legitimate photos and videos show that Russia has used these missile systems recently.
Our ruling
Facebook posts claim that Ukraine was responsible for the Kramatorsk train station bombing.
A video used to bolster this rumor is fake. Although the video has a BBC logo, it was not produced by the news organization.
There's no credible evidence that Ukraine was behind the attack.
The Tochka missile used in the attack, and the serial number on it, isn't proof that it came from the Ukrainian army. Several news reports, legitimate photos and videos show that Russia has used these missile systems recently. The rumors that Ukraine attacked the train station have largely been spread by pro-Kremlin social media accounts.
We rate this claim False.
Other countries have worse money laundering and human trafficking problems than Ukraine, according to experts and government reports.
Now amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a post claiming Ukraine is the "money laundering and child sex trafficking capital of the world!"
According to the State Department's latest Trafficking in Persons report, Russia has a more serious problem with child sex trafficking than Ukraine. Both countries struggle with the issue, the report said, but Ukraine took action to address it between 2020 and 2021, while Russia failed to make "significant efforts" to eliminate the problem.
While Ukraine convicted traffickers, increased financial assistance to victims, and launched awareness campaigns, Russia "convicted only one trafficker," failed to "initiate any new prosecutions of suspected traffickers," and "offered no funding or programs to provide services for trafficking victims."
Russia, not Ukraine, is among 11 governments the report says have "a documented 'policy or pattern' of human trafficking, trafficking in government-funded programs, forced labor in government-affiliated medical services or other sectors, sexual slavery in government camps, or employment or recruitment of child soldiers.
The report also ranks countries based on the extent of government efforts to meet minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking. Tier 1, the United States' ranking, is the highest, but it doesn't mean the country has no human trafficking problems. Rather, it means the country fully meets minimum standards to eliminate trafficking. Tier 2 ' Ukraine's tier ' means a country's government doesn't fully meet the minimum standards but is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance. Tier 3 includes countries such as Afghanistan and Russia that don't meet the minimum standards and aren't trying to.
We rate this post False.
Therefore, the Kremlin’s claim that they presented a set of evidence to the UN which proves Ukraine’s crimes in Bucha is fake. That which the Russian Ambassador presented at a special press conference and the UN Security Council are impossible to be considered as “evidence.” Most of them are easily verifiable false claims and the rest is absurd allegations which are not considered as evidence in any format.
