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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.

5,840 published reviews in this topic

dpaWar & conflict

Une vidéo montre que la Finlande envoie du matériel militaire vers la frontière russe.

Publisher’s rating: Les chars que l’on aperçoit dans la vidéo proviennent en effet de l’armée finlandaise. Cependant, ils ne sont pas en route vers la frontière russe. Ils se dirigent au contraire à l’opposé, vers l’ouest de la Finlande. Ces chars sont déplacés dans le cadre d’un exercice militaire prévu bien avant l’invasion russe en Ukraine, qui a accéléré la perspective d’une éventuelle adhésion de la Finlande à l’OTAN.

The claim concerned a social-media video of tanks being carried by rail in Finland. The review identifies the location as Tampere, about 300 kilometres from the Russian border. It says the buildings and a large chimney visible in the footage were used to locate the scene with Google Street View; the exact recording date could not be established. The direction of travel, however, indicated that the train was moving from east to west, away from the Russian border—not toward it. The review connects the vehicles to the Finnish military exercise Arrow 22. It reports that a Finnish defence forces statement on 4 May 2022 rejected claims that the tanks were being moved toward Russia, and that a Finnish army lieutenant-colonel told MTV Uutiset the tanks were travelling to the exercise. MTV Uutiset also reported a passage through Tampere over the weekend of 1 May and showed footage whose tank positions matched those in the social-media video at the cited moments. Arrow 22 was scheduled for 2–13 May at Niinisalo and Säkylä, locations the review says were farther from the Russian border than Tampere. A Finnish defence ministry document archived in December 2021 showed the exercise had been planned well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022. The review therefore places the train movement in the context of a previously scheduled exercise, rather than the claim that the tanks were heading toward the Russian border.

FACTLYWar & conflict

Photo of Natasha Perokov, the Ukraine’s first female fighter pilot who died during the war with Russia

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim paired a video of a woman flying a jet with a photograph of a woman in camouflage, presenting both as evidence that Natasha Perakov was Ukraine’s first female fighter pilot and had died during the war. The review says neither Ukrainian military nor government authorities had reported the death of a female pilot named Natasha Perokov. It identifies Nadiya Savchenko, not Perakov, as Ukraine’s first female combat pilot and says Savchenko was alive. [S1: “Neither the Ukrainian military nor the Ukrainian authorities have mentioned anything about the death of a female pilot during the ongoing war with Russia. Ukraine’s first female combat pilot was Nadiya Savchenko and she is still alive.”] The review used reverse-image searches to trace the two visuals separately. It reports that footage with similar visuals had appeared on the YouTube channel “spencerhughes2255” on 20 September 2021, and that its description identified the pilot as Major Kristin Beo Wolfe performing an F-35A Lightning II demonstration. This identifies the video as a demonstration, rather than evidence of Perakov’s death. [S1: “On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a video with similar visuals was found published by the ‘spencerhughes2255’ YouTube channel on 20 September 2021. The description of the video stated it as visuals of Major Kristin Beo Wolfe performing the Air Combat Command F-35A Lightning II demonstration”] For the photograph, the review says it found the same image in a social-media post naming the woman as Perakov, but reports that journalist Nga Pham traced it to sellers of fake military outfits and that the image appeared on e-commerce websites. The review also cites reporting on Savchenko’s capture in 2014, imprisonment, and release in a prisoner exchange, along with later social-media activity as evidence that she was alive. Taken together, the review’s findings show that the video and photograph did not establish the claimed pilot’s identity or death. [S1: “A journalist named Nga Pham has responded to this tweet and clarified that the picture was taken from a website that sells fake military outfits. Nga Pham through another tweet provided the sources from which he had found the image. This photo of a woman in a military camouflage was available on different e-commerce websites.”]

dpaWar & conflict

L'armée ukrainienne se rend en masse à Marioupol.

Publisher’s rating: La fiabilité du message, très confus de surcroît, est nulle – son auteur a d’ailleurs fait amende honorable, le 9 mai, de même que la source de ses informations.

The post, published on Facebook in Belgium on 8 May, claimed that Ukrainian troops were leaving the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol en masse under white flags. The review traces the claim to a statement by Alexander Khodakovsky, a pro-Russian separatist leader, who said that Ukrainian soldiers carrying a white flag had accompanied civilians evacuated from the site. That account concerned the evacuation of civilians; it did not establish that the Ukrainian forces had surrendered. The review reports that, in a video conference dated 8 May, two senior officials of a Ukrainian battalion holding out at the steelworks denied that the white-flag episode was a surrender. They said their priority was to secure the evacuation of civilians and wounded people, and that capitulation was not an option. The review also notes that hundreds of civilians had been evacuated, while reporting no indication that the Ukrainian troops in the plant’s underground areas intended to surrender or had begun doing so. The information source cited by the Facebook author, the site Avia.pro, later acknowledged that Ukrainian forces had not left Azovstal under white flags. It said Khodakovsky’s account had been contradicted by a representative of Russia’s Southern Military District, as cited by the Russian news agency TASS. The review further cautions that images circulated as showing Ukrainian prisoners from Mariupol were described by pro-Russian sites as depicting prisoners captured in the Donbas in February 2022, not at Mariupol.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaWar & conflict

මැයි 09 සිදුවූ ප්‍රහාර වලින් ජීවිතක්ෂයට පත් වූ අයද?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review examined social-media claims that two people had died after attacks on May 9, 2022: Salika Anuranga, who was injured at the Galle Face protest site in Colombo, and MP Kumar Welgama, who was attacked near Makumbura. Its conclusion was that neither had died as of May 10. The reports therefore treated the death claims as false, while the documented attacks and injuries were real. The article’s conclusion says: “අපගේ කරුණු විමර්ශනයෙන් පෙන්වා දෙනු ලබන්නේ, සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ සංසරණ වූ සටහන් වල දැක්වෙන පරිදි ඊයේ (09) අරගල භූමියේදී සිදු වූ ප්‍රහාරයෙන් තුවාල ලැබූ සාලික අනුරංග නමැති තරුණයා හෝ මාකුඹුර ප්‍රදේශයේ දී ප්‍රහාරයකට ලක්වූ පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී කුමාර වෙල්ගම මහතා හෝ මේ වන විට (මැයි 10) ජීවිතක්ෂයට පත් වී නොමැති බවයි.” For Anuranga, the review says he was taken to Colombo National Hospital after a blow to the head. It reports that hospital deputy director Samidhi Samarakoon denied the online death reports and said he was receiving treatment in the intensive care unit. The article also cites statements from his relatives and friends that he had undergone surgery. These details support the distinction between being seriously injured and having died: “සාලික අනුරංග ජීවිතක්ෂයට පත් වූ බවට පළ වන සටහන් අසත්‍ය වන බවයි. කෙසේවෙතත් ඔහු මේ වන විටත් හදිසි ප්‍රතිකාර ඒකකයේ (ICU) ප්‍රතිකාර ලබමින් සිටින බව ද සඳහන් කළා.” For Welgama, the review says he was hospitalized after being attacked near Makumbura and that the hospital confirmed he had minor injuries. It further reports that he was receiving emergency treatment after his chronic illnesses became active. His brother’s account, as quoted in the review, described an accidental vehicle collision followed by an attack by an angry crowd that did not recognize him. The article thus supports that he was attacked and injured, but not that he died: “අප මේ පිළිබඳව හෝමාගම රෝහලෙන් විමසීමක් කළ අතර ඔවුන් සඳහන් කළේ ද, සුළු තුවාල ලබා මන්ත්‍රීවරයා රෝහල් ගත කළ බවයි.”

dpaWar & conflict

Finland stuurt tanks naar de grens met Rusland.

Publisher’s rating: De tanks in de video zijn wel degelijk van het Finse leger. Ze zijn echter niet onderweg naar de Russische grens, maar naar het westen van Finland om deel te nemen aan een militaire oefening.

The claim concerned a social-media video of tanks on railcars, said to show Finland moving armor toward its border with Russia in response to a perceived threat. The investigation located recognizable features in the footage—including a large chimney and apartment buildings—using Google Maps’ 3D view, and identified the location as Tampere, Finland. It then examined the train’s direction of travel rather than treating the Finnish location alone as evidence of its destination. The review reports that zooming out on Google Maps showed the train moving west. It also compared the circulating footage with another video of what was reported to be the same convoy, published by Finnish news site Mtv Uutiset: empty railcars at 1:23 and 1:37 in that video appeared to match cars at 0:11 and 0:24 in the circulating clip. The review cautions that the recording date could not be established with complete certainty; Mtv Uutiset reported that the transport passed through Tampere over the weekend of 1 May. For the destination, the review cites a Finnish Army lieutenant colonel’s confirmation to Mtv Uutiset that the vehicles were Finnish tanks being transported to an exercise. It also reports that a Finnish Army account said the tanks were headed to Arrow 22, an exercise in Niinisalo, in western Finland. The exercise had been announced in advance; Niinisalo is about 333 kilometres from the Russian border. The route, convoy comparison, and exercise information therefore point to a planned westbound movement, not the border-bound journey asserted in the claim.

dpaWar & conflict

Russland hat jahrzehntelang friedlich zugesehen, wie die NATO sich aggressiv nach Osten ausgeweitet hat - und deutsche Medien schwiegen zu Ereignissen in der Ostukraine.

Publisher’s rating: Dieser «Geschichtsunterricht» lässt eine Reihe von wichtigen Ereignissen in den Beziehungen zwischen Russland und der NATO aus. So fehlt der gesamte Zeitraum von 1991 bis 2001. Andere Ereignisse werden falsch oder aus dem Zusammenhang gerissen dargestellt.

The post presents a selective timeline of Russia-NATO relations and claims that German media never reported certain events in eastern Ukraine. The dpa review identifies omissions and distortions in that account, including the absence of the entire 1991–2001 period. It also says the post’s claim that German media ignored the Donbas conflict is false: the review reports that searches for terms such as “eastern Ukraine + pensions” and “eastern Ukraine + children + killed” returned numerous media reports. The review’s chronology complicates the idea that Russia simply watched NATO expand peacefully. It describes differing Russian positions over time: in 1993, Boris Yeltsin said Poland’s eventual NATO membership would not conflict with other states’ interests, including Russia’s; in 1994, he warned of a “cold peace” if enlargement proceeded. In 1997, Russia and NATO signed a Founding Act that created a joint council and committed both sides to refrain from force. The review notes that the document excluded either side’s veto over the other’s decisions and did not require NATO to stop expanding. The article also assesses other parts of the post’s account, finding its treatment of US troops in Europe misleading and its claims about Crimean support for annexation incomplete. It reports that the post’s assertions about the 2014 change of government in Ukraine and the absence of German reporting on eastern Ukraine are not supported as presented. Overall, the review addresses the post’s wider framing by identifying omitted episodes, qualifications, and claims that it says are false or taken out of context.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturWar & conflict

Die Fotos von den Raketen sind echte TV-Screenshots.

Publisher’s rating: Das Foto ist gefälscht, die Sender haben das nie so gesendet.

The claim concerns a Facebook post that presented three images as television screenshots from different channels, all showing the same rocket damaging a vehicle. The DPA examined whether those images were genuine broadcasts. Its review reports that the images were unusually tall, whereas television broadcasts are generally in a 16:9 format. It also found that all three had the same color-tone and saturation values, which would be unexpected if they were screenshots from separate channels. The review compared details in the images with the broadcasters’ usual formats and graphics. It says Ukraine’s Channel 5 broadcasts in 16:9, its clock display lacks seconds, and its logo is usually on the right; if the rocket image had been shown there, it would have occupied only about a third of the picture. Russia 24 also broadcasts in landscape format, usually places its clock at the upper left, and would not plausibly show the clock, logo, and temperature in the arrangement depicted. The Al Jazeera image has a caption of only eight words split across three lines, unlike the channel’s usual longer, full-width captions. The review further says the rocket photograph and composite were already circulating more than seven years before 2022, rather than being current images from that year. A Reuters photographer had photographed the rocket at the same location from another angle, establishing the location as a village in eastern Ukraine. The review concludes that the broadcasters had not used the photograph as the montage claimed; it notes that the first publication of the photograph and composite was unclear.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturWar & conflict

Panzer in Finnland rollen zur russischen Grenze.

Publisher’s rating: Die Panzer, die im Video zu sehen sind, werden für eine militärische Übung in den Westen Finnlands verlegt. Sie entfernen sich also von der russischen Grenze. Das Manöver war schon lange vor der Invasion Russlands in die Ukraine geplant.

The claim concerned a video of tanks being transported by train in Finland in May 2022. It was presented online as showing Finnish tanks moving toward the Russian border. The investigation instead found that Finland was moving the tanks for the Army’s previously announced annual exercise, Arrow 22, not in response to current events. The exercise was to take place in Niinisalo in western Finland; the Russian border is in the east. The review says the tanks were therefore travelling away from that border. To assess the route, the investigation located the footage in Tampere, about 70 kilometres southeast of Niinisalo. It compared visible surroundings—including high-rise buildings, a railway bridge and a chimney—with details visible through Google’s map service, and concluded that the train was travelling west. The review also reported that the exact filming time was unclear, while the Finnish outlet MTV Uutiset said the train had passed through Tampere on the weekend before May 4. The investigation further reported that Finland’s Ministry of Defence explicitly linked the tank transport to Arrow and said claims of troop movements toward the border were false. It also compared the circulating video with footage published by MTV Uutiset: the train had the same arrangement of wagons, including an empty wagon followed by 40 more tanks, and a white sign with a red cross on the eleventh tank after the empty wagon. The review treated these matching details as evidence that both videos showed the same train, rather than a separate movement toward Russia.

dpaWar & conflict

Les Russes provoquent des « pertes irrémédiables » à l'armée ukrainienne.

Publisher’s rating: L’auteur du message ne cite aucune source fiable, à l’appui de ses dires. L’Ukraine, en tout cas, n’a officiellement publié aucun chiffre sur les pertes de son armée engendrées par le conflit avec la Russie. Alexei Arestovich, un proche conseiller du président ukrainien, n’a jamais parlé officiellement de « panique dans les rangs des soldats » de son pays, par ailleurs.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaWar & conflict

ගාලු මුවදොර අරගල භූමියේදී දෙමළ ඊලාම් ධජය ඔසවා තිබූ අවස්ථාවක් ද?

Publisher’s rating: Altered

The claim concerns a photo circulated as showing an Eelam flag at the Galle Face protest site. The investigation says it checked whether major media had reported such a flag there and found no such report. It then examined a similar photograph posted by photographer Thilina Kaluthotage, who had taken the original image. He told the investigators that no Eelam flag was raised at that moment and identified the flag in the photo as belonging to the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union. The review places the image in the setting of the May Day events at Galle Face. It says the union had marched to the protest site on May 1, and that the red flag visible in footage from the event was the union’s flag. The investigation also reports that a closer view of another photograph from the same moment showed the union’s identity, and that the union’s flags were visible in photographs on its own Facebook page. The review concludes that the image shared as evidence of an Eelam flag had been edited. Its account of the photographer’s identification, the closer image, and the event footage supports the distinction between the flag actually shown and the one the circulating image purported to show.

Culturalist PressWar & conflict

The MQ-9 Reaper was first used in Afghanistan & Iraq; it made its first official “kill” in Afghanistan in 2008. MQ-9 Reaper is in use globally where military operations are ongoing; while not designed to fly alongside civilian aircraft, they are used by over a dozen countries for observation and military uses.

Publisher’s rating: The MQ-9 was the first lethal drone used ever in any conflict and is notorious for its first deployment in Afghanistan by the US Military