Category Ukraine

Video does not show ‘Russian jets over Ukraine’ — it has circulated in old posts about air show rehearsal

A video of military planes flying in formation over residential buildings has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in posts that claim it shows Russian fighter jets entering neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022. The posts circulated online within hours of Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashing a full-scale ground invasion and air assault on Ukraine. The footage, however, has been shared in a false context. It has circulated since at least 2020 in social media posts about rehearsals for a Victory Day air show in Russia.

Read MoreVideo does not show ‘Russian jets over Ukraine’ — it has circulated in old posts about air show rehearsal

This video shows an explosion in Beirut in 2020, not Russian strikes on Ukraine in 2022

After Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, dramatic footage of a huge explosion was viewed tens of thousands of times in social media posts that claimed it shows buildings destroyed by Russian air strikes. In fact, the video shows a deadly blast that ripped through the Lebanese capital Beirut in August 2020.

Read MoreThis video shows an explosion in Beirut in 2020, not Russian strikes on Ukraine in 2022

FAKE: The Joint Forces Operation (JFO) headquarters in Donbas has been practically destroyed

The information has been spread in social networks that the Joint Forces Operation in Donbas headquarters has been practically destroyed. The news source is the post of the head of the "DPR" Denis Pushilin.

However, this is fake. The adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko, has already refuted it.

Read MoreFAKE: The Joint Forces Operation (JFO) headquarters in Donbas has been practically destroyed

Ukraine crisis: A low-cost disinformation campaign aids Putin’s playbook

How then can the well-oiled Russian machine produce such "low-cost" disinformation? "Simply because, for the moment, the Russian authorities do not need to do better." [...]

What’s more, it’s not so much the quality as the quantity of disinformation that matters. "The goal is to create so many different – and sometimes even contradictory – versions of what is happening at the border that no one can really distinguish the true from the false anymore."

Read MoreUkraine crisis: A low-cost disinformation campaign aids Putin’s playbook

Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely claims Ukraine was ‘No. 1 donor’ to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign

Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign did not report receiving any donations from the Ukrainian government or Ukrainian nationals. Those donations would have been illegal.

A spokesperson for Marjorie Taylor Greene cited a 2015 Wall Street Journal graphic that has been frequently misrepresented online. The chart shows donations to the Clinton Foundation between 1999 and 2014 by the nationality of the individuals who made them; it does not say anything about donations to the foundation by foreign governments.

The Clinton Foundation said it has never received donations from Ukraine's government.

Our ruling
Greene said, "Ukraine was the No. 1 donor to Hillary Clinton when she was running for president."

Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign did not report any donations from Ukraine or Ukrainian nationals ' a move that would have broken the law. Asked for evidence to support Greene's claim, the congresswoman's spokesperson did not cite any campaign donations.

He pointed instead to a Wall Street Journal chart that mapped large individual donations between 1999 and 2014 to the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit organization. The chart was a ranking of the top foreign donors by nationality, not contributions from foreign governments.

The Clinton Foundation said it has never received any funding from the Ukrainian government.

We rate Greene's statement False.

Read MoreMarjorie Taylor Greene falsely claims Ukraine was ‘No. 1 donor’ to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign