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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

War & conflict fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about war & conflict. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

5,837 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYWar & conflict

This video shows visuals of the Nova Kakhovka Dam explosion in Ukraine in June 2023

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

FACTLY examined a video shared as footage of the Nova Kakhovka Dam explosion in Ukraine in June 2023, an incident the review says led to massive flooding. Its conclusion was that the video was not from that June event: it showed an explosion at the dam in November 2022. The review therefore found the video’s attribution to the 2023 explosion misleading. To investigate the video’s origin, FACTLY says it used reverse image search on keyframes. It reports finding the video online in November 2022 and says multiple news reports published at that time described footage of the dam being damaged by an explosion. This earlier appearance is the central evidence against the claim that the video depicts the June 2023 event. The review also distinguishes the video’s location from its date: it says the footage does show an explosion at the Nova Kakhovka Dam, but that it predates the June 2023 explosion by several months. Thus, the issue is not whether the video shows the dam, but whether it is being presented as footage of the later incident.

El Detector / Univision NoticiasWar & conflict

“Ucrania tuvo éxito: Rusia se retira de Crimea".

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review investigated a social-media post claiming that Russia was withdrawing from Crimea and that Putin’s special forces had surrendered. The post’s video had more than 13,000 views on Facebook. The review found no announcement of a Russian retreat or Ukrainian recovery of the peninsula from the Ukrainian government, the Crimean authorities, or reputable international news organizations. It also noted that Crimea had been annexed by Russia in 2014, a status Ukraine considers illegal. To check the claim, the investigators examined official Ukrainian and Crimean sources and searched Google in English and Spanish for reports that the Russian army was abandoning Crimea, restricting results to the preceding month. They reported finding no official notice of lost territory or troop withdrawal and no corresponding report in reputable media. The review reasoned that a Ukrainian recovery of Crimea would have been announced by the government, but said no such announcement appeared on its official website. The video itself did not substantiate the headline. It consisted of military footage, including clashes, tanks, and missile launches, while an on-screen disclaimer said the images were illustrative. Its narrator discussed alleged problems with Russian soldiers’ morale and combat performance, but the review observed that the video never mentioned Crimea. Thus, the footage and narration provided no evidence that Russian forces had withdrawn from the peninsula.

dpa-factcheckingWar & conflict

Die USA haben der Ukraine Angriffe mit von ihnen gelieferten Waffen auf russisches Staatsgebiet erlaubt.

Publisher’s rating: John Kirby stellte in dem CNN-Interview erneut klar, dass die USA keine ukrainischen Angriffe auf russisches Territorium unterstützen. Von einem Kurswechsel war keine Rede. Auch die Bundesregierung lehnt den Einsatz deutscher Waffen für solche Angriffe ab.

The claim arose from a blog article’s reading of a CNN interview with John Kirby as an official change in U.S. policy allowing Ukraine to attack Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons. The review identifies the interview as the source behind that interpretation and checks what Kirby said against the U.S. position described in the article. It reports that, before the interview, Jake Sullivan had reiterated that the United States did not enable or support attacks on Russian territory. Kirby’s remarks, as quoted in the review, reaffirmed that position: he said the United States would provide Ukraine with what it needed to defend itself and its territory, but did not support attacks on Russia. The review also notes that Ukraine had assured the United States it would not use U.S.-provided equipment for attacks inside Russia. These points do not support the blog’s claim that Kirby had given permission or announced a policy reversal. The apparent qualification was Kirby’s observation that, once the United States provides systems, Ukrainians can decide how to use them. In the review’s account, this was a statement about Ukraine making sovereign decisions, not an announcement that the United States would support attacks on Russian territory. The article adds that a Tass report on the interview likewise said the United States did not support such attacks. Separately, German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said international law allowed Ukraine to attack Russian territory in self-defense, while the German government opposed using German weapons for those attacks.

dpaWar & conflict

Une vidéo actuelle montre des soldats de l’OTAN en Ukraine.

Publisher’s rating: Non. La vidéo circule sur internet depuis août 2021, et n'est donc pas récente. Elle ne montre pas non plus des soldats de l'OTAN en Ukraine, mais l'évacuation à grande échelle qui s'est déroulée à l'époque depuis l'aéroport de Kaboul, la capitale de l'Afghanistan, peu après l'annonce du retrait des troupes américaines du pays et la reprise du pouvoir par les talibans.

FACTLYWar & conflict

Recent photo showing the coffins of US soldiers who died while fighting for Ukraine in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo of U.S.-flag-draped coffins inside an aircraft, circulated as a recent image of U.S. soldiers killed while fighting for Ukraine. The review says the post presented it as “Patriot missile battery operators being sent home from Kiev,” but identifies the image as unrelated to the Russia-Ukraine war. To investigate the image’s provenance, the review reports conducting a reverse image search. That search found the same photo on Getty Images, with a description identifying the coffins as remains of crew members whose Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a night training mission in Kuwait. The description places the aircraft at Ramstein Air Force Base and says the photo was released by the Pentagon on April 28, 2005. The review further says the U.S. Department of Defence published the image in April 2005 and that the helicopter crash occurred on a training mission in Kuwait in 2005. Those details place the photograph years before the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and identify a different event and location. On that basis, the review concludes the image is old and does not show coffins of U.S. soldiers who died in that war.

Belarusian Investigative CenterWar & conflict

Над Польшей появилось ядерное облако из-за уничтожения боеприпасов с обедненным ураном

Publisher’s rating: Государственное агентство атомистики Польши 17 мая выпустило официальное опровержение, назвав дезинформацией новости о радиоактивной угрозе.