Правда ли, что президент Беларуси Александр Лукашенко назвал своего союзника, президента России Владимира Путина, «гнидой»? Нет, это неправда. Аудиодорожка в распространяемом видео была изменена. В оригинальном видео Лукашенко назвал «мразью» президента Украины Владимира Зеленского, а не Путина. Данное утверждение появилось в видео (архив здесь), опубликованном в социальной сети TikTok 13 марта 2023 года. В титрах к видео сказано: Президент Путин…

Did Poland's President Andrzej Duda say that Ukraine has already lost the war with Russia, and he sees no point in assisting Ukraine because Russia is too strong? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no such information on the official website of the president of the Republic of Poland, where all the president's remarks are collected. No such statement…

Did the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko say that Russia practices a fascist ideology? No, that's not true: The audio clip has been digitally altered from an address to the Belarusian National Assembly when Lukashenko accused Ukraine of fascism. A video (archived here) was posted on the TikTok account @kolitikaua on April 6, 2023. The caption in Russian reads (as translated…

Did Belarusian troops march chanting insults at Putin? No, the footage is from 2021 and shows the march of the Ukrainian military in preparation for the Independence Day parade on August 24th. The video (archived here) displaying this claim was originally published by @hereiswherewedestroythem on the Tiktok on April 28th. This is what the post looked like on TikTok at…

Did US Vice President Kamala Harris deliver a "word salad" speech? No, that's not true: The video is a deepfake, where fake audio was synced to match her lip movements. The manipulated video (an example here) in which Harris seemed to be slurring her speech, went viral. The words: "Today is today and yesterday was today yesterday. Tomorrow will be…

Правда ли, что 3 мая 2023 года на белорусско-польской границе были замечены тысячи мигрантов? Нет, это неправда. Видео, содержащее такое утверждение, действительно было снято на белорусско-польском пограничном пункте «Брузги-Кузница Белостоцкая», но не в 2023 году, а в 2021 году. Данное утверждение появилось в видео (архив здесь), опубликованном в социальной сети TikTok 2 мая 2023 года. Надпись на экране гласит: Вот…

Were people in the Crimean peninsula stuck in traffic on the Kerch bridge after a fuel depot blast in the Russian-occupied city of Sevastopol on April 29, 2023? No, that's not true. The footage recently circulated on social media is from October 2022. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on April 30, 2023, by the…

Is the United States preparing for a nuclear war in Europe by deploying a guided-missile submarine to the Middle East? No, that's not true: There is no evidence nor has it been reported that the United States is currently preparing for a nuclear war in Europe or elsewhere. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok by…

Did the British weekly New European publish a special issue cover with a cartoon of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sitting on the lap of Dalai Lama and saying: "I'll suck it if you pay me"? No, that's not true: The illustration has not appeared in any issue of The New European. On April 18, 2023, the cover in English with…

Does this photo show the son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Nikolai Peskov taking the military oath? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found the person taking the oath in the photo is not Nikolai Peskov, also known as Nikolai Choles. It is the son of the fifth president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, Oleksii Poroshenko. On April 23, 2023, this…

Does a surgery to change one's gender cost $700,000? No, that's not true: Depending on one's choice, the cost varies from $5,400 for chin surgery to well over $100,000 for multiple procedures as of October 2022. In an interview with Sputnik, Deputy Chairman of the Standing Commission on International Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Oleg Gaidukevich said that gender-affirming…

Does a video circulating on social media show Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the hands of enemy forces, about to be executed? No, that's not true: The person in the video is an actor impersonating Zelenskyy in a YouTube miniseries, meant to be satirical, mocking the Ukrainian president. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) posted on TikTok by the account…

Did Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a video, say the Caspian Sea was the territory of Belarus and promise to find all Belarusians who launched their rockets from the shores of the Caspian Sea? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found this video has been manipulated. This claim was published by different TikTok accounts in Russian. On April 7, 2023,…

Did Polish tv show a map in 2023 'dividing' Ukraine among neighbor states? No, that's not true: a recent news report on national Polish tv did not show such a map. The clip is taken from a old news report aired on Polish public television in 2014. It showed a Russian politician's old proposal to divide Ukraine, shrinking its territory…

Have crocodiles turned up in the Caspian Sea, the world's largest landlocked body of water? No, that's not true: The video on TikTok that makes this claim uses footage of a crocodile filmed in Australia. Crocodiles cannot survive the relatively cool temperatures of the Caspian Sea, bordered by the non-tropical countries of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. The claim…

Did the Ukrainian Parliament submit a bill banning filming in cemeteries? No, that's not true: The screenshot distributed under the masthead of the National News Agency of Ukraine (Ukrinform) is fabricated. Lead Stories found no such information on Ukrinform's official website (archived here), and no such bill has been registered on the Ukrainian Parliament's website. This claim has been published…

Did a decommissioned NASA spacecraft crash in Kyiv, Ukraine? No, that's not true: The flash seen in Kyiv had nothing to do with the spacecraft, which did enter the Earth's atmosphere but nowhere near Ukraine. The claim that a NASA satellite crashed in Kyiv appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by a user named jony.ori on April 19,…

Did a collapse in the value of the American dollar cause the United States to reconnect Russia to the SWIFT financial messaging system? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no evidence that the United States or SWIFT has announced such a decision, as of this writing. On February 28, 2022, the United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada…

Does a video on TikTok show a priest from the Orthodox Church of Ukraine performing a "satanic" dance to celebrate Easter? No, that's not true: The man seen in the video is not a priest but a Ukrainian actor. The video was recorded during the filming of a miniseries in 2020. The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here)…

Does a video on TikTok show that Russia moved nuclear weapons to Vyborg, a town near the Finnish border, after Finland joined NATO on April 3, 2023? No, that's not true: The actual location of the town shown in the video is not Vyborg, about 25 miles from Finland, but Kolchugino, in Russia's Vladmir region, 104 miles northeast of Moscow.…