Fact checks

Propagandists have created a fake British media website to discredit Zelensky and his entourage Pro-Russian propagandists on Telegram, X (Twitter), and Instagram are spreading a "video investigation" allegedly conducted by a British outlet called London Telegraph. The video claims that a former investigator of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Iryna K., fled Ukraine with a large number of documents "proving" that President Volodymyr Zelensky's family owns real estate in Europe worth EUR 1.2 billion. It also alleges that the Ukrainian leader controls these assets through a close circle of trusted persons. This is false. The media outlet London…

Russia used Polish activist to circulate fake story Russian media outlets, Telegram channels, Facebook, and X accounts are sharing a photo of a supposed announcement allegedly posted at a checkpoint on the Polish-Ukrainian border. According to the claim, Ukrainian citizens are required to strip down to their underwear to be checked for tattoos featuring OUN-UPA symbols. If such tattoos are found, the person is allegedly denied entry into Poland. This is fake news. The announcement text contains glaring grammatical mistakes. For example, instead of the correct Ukrainian word for "роздягнутись" ("undress"), the text incorrectly uses "розігнутись" ("straighten up"). The fake…

Russian propagandists have fabricated photos and videos to spread disinformation. Russian media outlets and pro-Kremlin Telegram channels are circulating claims that so-called "Odesa partisans" carried out a "revenge operation" against police officers in Odesa. According to these reports, officers named "Serhii Lymar" and "Ihor Hapenko" allegedly participated in "forced mobilization," which supposedly led to the death of a mobilized man and one of the officers. Photos and videos are presented as "evidence." These claims are fake. Firstly, the original source of the information is the Telegram channel Odesskiy Partizan, which, according to analytics platform Tgstat, is administered from Russia. The…

Russian channels fake local news headlines from Kharkiv and Sumy regions to accuse Ukrainian serviceman of violent crimes Russian Telegram channels are circulating fabricated screenshots allegedly showing Ukrainian news reports linking a soldier of the 22nd Mechanized Brigade to brutal crimes against his mother, including abuse, an attempted stabbing, and her murder with a wooden stick. This is fake news. Russian propaganda concocted the story by manipulating three unrelated crime reports originally published by Ukrainian outlets Dumka and Sumski Debaty. These were separate publications from the local crime chronicle and had nothing to do with each other. None of the…

Russian channels fake local news headlines from Kharkiv and Sumy regions to accuse Ukrainian serviceman of violent crimes Russian Telegram channels are circulating fabricated screenshots allegedly showing Ukrainian news reports linking a soldier of the 22nd Mechanized Brigade to brutal crimes against his mother, including abuse, an attempted stabbing, and her murder with a wooden stick. This is fake news. Russian propaganda concocted the story by manipulating three unrelated crime reports originally published by Ukrainian outlets Dumka and Sumski Debaty. These were separate publications from the local crime chronicle and had nothing to do with each other. None of the…

Russian propaganda has launched a large-scale campaign to discredit Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following the historic summit in Washington on August 18, 2025. In particular, Russian Telegram channels are circulating images of supposed school diary covers allegedly made in Ukraine, showing Zelensky depicted in the style of well-known photos of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Propagandists claim this supposedly shows the Ukrainian president wanting to resemble the Russian war criminal. This is false. School diaries featuring Zelensky are not sold in Ukraine. They cannot be found on Ukrainian online marketplaces or stationery websites. While calendars, postcards, and other merchandise featuring the…

Fake photos from US restaurants circulate online Russian state media, Telegram channels, and bot accounts on X are spreading photos allegedly showing a restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska — the site of the upcoming meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin — that supposedly created an exclusive dish in honor of the Russian dictator's visit. This is fake. The restaurant in the photo is not even in Alaska. It is actually located in Minnesota, six kilometers east of the town of Longville, and simply happens to be called "Anchorage." The original photo was taken in March 2025 and shows other dishes…

Russian media outlets, Telegram channels, and bots on the social network X are spreading a fabricated newsletter allegedly intended for wives of Ukrainian servicemen. It contains so-called "rules" encouraging women to tolerate domestic violence from their husbands. This is a fake. The newsletter was created by Russians themselves and is being circulated to discredit Ukrainian soldiers. The "advice" text contains spelling errors uncharacteristic of Ukrainian. For example, in the word "побої" ("beatings"), the Ukrainian letter "ї" is incorrectly replaced with the Russian "и." Russian Telegram channels have also circulated a screenshot of a Ukrainian media article reporting that police registered…

In light of recent events surrounding the “progress in negotiations with Russia”, it is pretty surprising, at first glance, that US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing additional tariffs against India (and potentially other countries, since the document has a framework nature) for buying Russian oil. It is symbolic that this happened immediately after Putin’s meeting with Witkoff. But the main thing is that the document designates Russia as “an unusual and extraordinary threat to U.S. national security”. It is therefore absolutely no coincidence that the document contains only three mentions of India and as many as 17…

British "pseudo-blogger" spreads fakes about Ukraine and gets detained Russian state media, pro-war Telegram channels, bot accounts on X, and Facebook pages are spreading claims that it was allegedly reported "in the UK" that since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost 1.8 million personnel in combat. This is fake. The source of this claim is a post on X by a man calling himself a journalist and blogger, Warren Thornton. He has a paid X account, a YouTube channel with only about 2,000 subscribers, and a banned TikTok account. In his post…