A photo of people gathering in a square has been viewed tens of thousands of times alongside a false claim it shows an anti-war protest in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in September 2023. The photo in fact predates Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine; it was taken in Turin, Italy in November 2018 and shows a rally to support the construction of a controversial train line.
"My brother sent this to me. Town of Bucha northwest of Kyiv. The amount of dead citizens on one street alone…I just can’t even process."
KYIV (7 December 2022) – In the initial weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian armed forces summarily executed or carried out attacks on individuals leading to the deaths of hundreds of civilians, the Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner said today. A UN Human Rights report based on the work of the Mission details how Russian troops killed civilians in Ukrainian towns and villages across the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions of Ukraine from 24 February until 6 April 2022.
Bogner said the summary executions examined in the report may constitute a war crime. “There are strong indications that the summary executions documented in this report may constitute the war crime of willful killing,” she said.
Timothy Snyder writes: Whatever his new biography says, by giving into Russia’s nuclear blackmail the X boss can only encourage more threats from Putin.
The U.S. did not accidentally send Ukraine $6 billion in military aid, as some online have alleged. This claim misinterprets a Pentagon announcement in June that the agency had overestimated the value of weapons it sent to Ukraine.
Misleading Material. Although Shoigu appeared to shrug off or dismiss the question of whether Russia will win, the clip of him shared on social media is edited. In the unedited version, the Russian defense minister goes on to say "We have no other option."
As Congress debates additional support for Ukraine, the anti-Ukraine echo chamber will peddle myths and half-truths, including these four:
Myth: Washington is writing Kyiv “blank checks” that Americans cannot afford.
Myth: There is not enough oversight of US aid to Ukraine.
Myth: America is exponentially the largest donor to Ukraine.
Myth: Russia is a distraction. The US must focus on China.
CNN reports: Ukraine is “slowly gaining ground” in its counteroffensive despite difficult fighting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday, [Sept. 7].
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was quoted saying that U.S. contributions were needed for voting.
Currently, Ukrainian law forbids holding elections during wartime.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, some have claimed that "children" are being recruited into the Ukrainian army. Three viral photos, purporting to show graves of very young soldiers, have been shared since mid-August as evidence of this phenomenon. However, two of these three photos have been manipulated, and actually show the burial sites of adult men.
