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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.

5,847 published reviews in this topic

dpaWar & conflict

Russische leger rijdt door Wenen.

Publisher’s rating: De berichten kloppen niet. Er reed inderdaad een militaire colonne door Wenen, maar dit waren Franse voertuigen die op doortocht waren naar Hongarije. Van arrestaties door Russische soldaten in de Oostenrijkse hoofdstad is geen sprake.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturWar & conflict

Wie sich herausstellte, wurden Fotos des Wracks des Su-27-Kampfjets der 831. taktischen Fliegerbrigade der ukrainischen Luftwaffe, das am 25. Februar über Kiew von seinem eigenen Luftabwehrsystem abgeschossen wurde, im Internet veröffentlicht.

Publisher’s rating: Auf dem Bild ist die Explosion eines bei einer Flugschau verunglückten Flugzeugs im September 2011 zu sehen. Mit den aktuellen Kriegshandlungen in der Ukraine hat es nichts zu tun.

The image was presented as showing a recent aircraft incident in Ukraine. The Deutsche Presse-Agentur’s review identifies it instead as a photograph of an aircraft exploding after an accident at an airshow in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 2011. Its account therefore contradicts the image’s claimed connection to the current fighting in Ukraine; the supplied excerpt does not establish the additional details about the aircraft type, unit or alleged Kyiv shootdown. The review says a reverse-image search found the photograph and articles about a fatal airshow accident in Martinsburg. Those reports dated the accident to September 17, 2011—more than ten years before the image was circulated as current. The review also reports that the location could be checked against the photograph: a distinctive tower visible in the background was found near the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport. For further corroboration, the review points to an Associated Press photograph captioned as showing the aircraft performing a maneuver shortly before it crashed, and to video showing the maneuver and crash. These strands support the identification of the image as documentation of the Martinsburg airshow accident, rather than an event in Ukraine.

watson.chWar & conflict

Igor erbeutete 9K330 Tor SAM der Russen.

Publisher’s rating: Unbelegt.

The claim concerned a viral post saying that a person called Igor found a Russian Army 9K330 Tor surface-to-air missile system abandoned in a forest and thereby acquired it. The post presented the story humorously and circulated with a photograph. The article reports that it attracted substantial attention and that someone even added “Igor from Ukraine” to an English-language Wikipedia list of operators of the system; that edit was later removed. The investigation distinguished between the post’s circulation and independent confirmation of its central claim. It found that the available material traced back to an Oryx account tweet and a higher-resolution version of the photograph from the same source. The image also circulated on Reddit, Telegram, and other Twitter accounts, but the article found no independent source confirming the story. Reposts and the higher-resolution image therefore did not amount to separate corroboration. The article acknowledged that Oryx’s bloggers, Stijn Mitzer and Joost Oliemans, were known military researchers and had documented equipment losses in the war. But its inquiries to them, along with requests from other journalists, initially went unanswered; the bloggers later said they did not have time to respond. The article consequently said it remained unclear whether Igor existed or had captured the system. It did not establish that the event was impossible; rather, the specific story lacked independent verification or further information in the material examined.

APA - Austrian Presse AgenturWar & conflict

Ukrainische Kindersoldaten des „Asow-Bataillons” („Azov”) - einer von der letzten Regierung Kiews finanzierten Gruppe von Nazis, die nach dem Vorbild der „ISIS” ausgebildet werden - sind die Legitimation für den Einmarsch Russlands.

Publisher’s rating: Die Fotos sind alt und haben nichts mit dem aktuellen Einmarsch Russlands in die Ukraine zu tun. Sie zeigen ein paramilitärisches Ferienlager, das von der Gruppe der „Asow” organisiert wird und sich an Kinder und Jugendliche richtet. Mehreren Quellen zufolge weisen zumindest Teile der Gruppe starke extremistische und nationalistische Züge auf. Der Anteil von Rechtsextremen bzw. Neonazis im ukrainischen Militär ist nicht feststellbar. Ihn als Legitimation eines Einmarschs zu sehen, entspricht einem vom Kreml verbreiteten Narrativ.

AnnirWar & conflict

القوات الخاصة الشيشانية تعثر على ملايين الدولارات في صناديق عليها علامة الصليب الأحمر العالمي في إحدى المقرات العسكرية في ضواحي كييف شاهدوا مكتوب على الصندوق (الجماهيرية العربية الليبية الشعبية الاشتراكية)

Publisher’s rating: مضلل

The claim says Chechen special forces found millions of dollars in Red Cross-marked boxes at a military site near Kyiv, and points to a Libyan inscription on one box. Annir’s review examined the video circulating with that Ukraine attribution and concluded that it was not filmed in Ukraine: “الفيديو لم يكن في أوكرانيا.” The review describes searching social-media platforms and Google for terms including “ICRC Money” and “أموال الصليب الأحمر.” It reports that the same video had circulated in several different contexts and had repeatedly been used to fabricate claims over the preceding eleven years. The review says it had been attributed to multiple countries, including Niger, Ghana, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Ukraine. As its key comparison, Annir says an older circulating clip and the version then attributed to Ukraine were identical, while the Ukraine version had Russian speech added over it. That comparison supports the review’s conclusion that the video does not establish the claimed discovery near Kyiv. The supplied excerpt does not provide further details about the boxes’ actual origin or independently establish what was inside them.