False and misleading information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine has spread rapidly on social media since Russian forces launched a military assault in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 24.
Here’s a roundup of claims related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict analyzed by the USA TODAY Fact Check team.
The viral image of children waving off troops dates back to 2016. It does not depict the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
Our ruling
Social media posts claim that a viral image, which shows two young children holding hands and saluting troops, was captured in Ukraine in 2022. But the photo traces back to 2016.
We rate these posts False.
5 fakes of the war in Ukraine including:
#1. "Celebrating the war". Video claims to show Russian soldiers dancing before heading to the frontline in Ukraine. In reality, dancing was in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
#2. "Russian jets launching attacks" - False. Video is from video game "Arma-3".
#3. "Formation of jets over an urban areas" - Not from war in Ukraine. Video is from a 2020 Moscow air show.
#4. "German news shows hundreds of Russian soldiers allegedly parachuting over the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv" - False. Old video from Russia (2016).
Putin claims:
“Does Ukraine need to be denazified” - false,
“Is Russia’s attack a defense case under the UN Charter?” - false,
“Was there a ‘genocide” in Ukraine?” - false.
Russia has so far failed to provide any evidence in their claims.
Many posts on social media claiming to pertain to the current conflict in Ukraine are in fact videos and photos of different events in other regions that happened several years ago. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.
There are no U.S.-run biological weapons labs operating in Ukraine.
The U.S. Defense Department and the Ukraine Ministry of Health have had a partnership since 2005 to improve public health laboratories and prevent the threat of outbreaks of infectious diseases.
That effort is part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which began in 1991 to reduce the threat of existing weapons of mass destruction programs in former Soviet Republics.
Our ruling
A social media user tweeted that Russia was targeting U.S.-run biolabs in its invasion of Ukraine. That account was soon suspended by Twitter.
There are no U.S.-run biolabs in Ukraine. The country is one of many former Soviet Union republics, and other countries, partnering with the Defense Department as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. It's the latest claim in a series of disinformation efforts by the Russians, an expert told PolitiFact.
While the U.S. may provide funding to upgrade or build labs in other countries, the labs are run by the partnering nations and the program's goal is to prevent biological threats, not create them. We rate this claim False.
Despite multiple claims of a Ukrainian genocide against ethnic Russians, there is no evidence to support it.
International bodies that include Russian representatives report that civilian deaths have plummeted since 2014.
Russia's ambassador to the U.S. relied on misleading and outdated evidence to back the claim.
Our ruling
Putin said ethnic Russians in Ukraine face genocide.
His ambassador provided misleading evidence, and international observers found no activities to support the claim. Civilian deaths have plummeted to less than 1% of what they were in 2014.
We rate this False.
A media specialised in putting the spotlight on Russian disinformation has highlighted a false flag attack in eastern Ukraine that pro-Russian media outlets were pinning on Kyiv. Corpses likely retrieved from a morgue were used to set the scene.
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."
