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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

FACTLYWar & conflict

Photo of a girl crying beside a dead body from the recent Russia-Ukraine conflict

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

FACTLY investigated a post presenting a photo of a girl crying beside a dead body as a recent visual from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The review’s finding is that the image was not documentary evidence of that conflict: it came from the film *The Brest Fortress*, also known as *Fortress of War*, and was not a real-life scene. This directly contradicts the claim that the photograph shows an actual event in the recent conflict. The review describes two checks supporting that conclusion. It says the image could be found on Wikimedia with the description “Scene from The Brest Fortress,” and that the same visual appears in the full movie uploaded to YouTube. Those matches tie the claimed photograph to the film rather than to a real-world incident in Ukraine. The supplied excerpt does not give further details about the image’s original posting or the identity of the people depicted, so those details cannot be established here.

FACTLYWar & conflict

Recent photo of two Ukrainian children sending off soldiers to fight the Russians

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a photo described as showing two Ukrainian children sending off soldiers to fight the Russians, and presents it as recent. FACTLY’s review identifies that as its first claim and says the image was old, not taken during the Russia-Ukraine crisis then underway. Its conclusion is specifically about the photo’s timing and setting: the review does not say that the pictured scene is fabricated, but that presenting the image as a recent wartime visual is misleading. To check the image’s history, the review reports finding the same photo on the official Facebook account of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence in March 2016. It also says the image appears in photographer Dmitry Muravsky’s 2016 album “Children of War,” translated from Russian. Those earlier appearances support the conclusion that this was not a newly taken photo from the current crisis. The article also discusses three other visuals in separate posts, but those concern different claims: a video of a Palestinian girl and Israeli soldier, a film still, and a video shot in Iraq. They are not evidence about the two-children photo. The finding for the claim at issue rests on the reported 2016 provenance of that specific image.

Fact Crescendo CambodiaWar & conflict

រូបភាព​ដែល​មាន​តម្លៃ ១០០០​ពាក្យ ក្មេង​ស្រី អ៊ុយក្រែន បាន​បណ្ដេញ​ទាហាន​រុស្ស៊ី ឱ្យ​ចេញ​ពី​ប្រទេស​នាង…។ ប៉ុន្តែ គួរ​សរសើរ​សីលធម៌​ទាហាន​រុស្ស៊ី បើ​ខ្មែរ​ក្រហម​ហ៊ាន​សម្លាប់​ក្មេង​ចាស់ និង​ព្រះ​សង្ឃ​ទៀត

Publisher’s rating: False

The video does not show a Ukrainian girl confronting a Russian soldier. The review identifies the girl as Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi and says the footage shows her confronting an Israeli soldier in 2012.

FACTLYWar & conflict

Video of a Ukrainian girl standing up to a Russian soldier

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video presented as showing a Ukrainian girl confronting a Russian soldier during the Russia–Ukraine crisis. FACTLY’s review identifies that exact claim as its second example and reports that the footage was actually from 2012, predating the crisis context in which it was being shared. The review says the video was unrelated to both Russia and Ukraine; it showed a Palestinian girl expressing anger toward an Israeli soldier. [S1]

FACTLYWar & conflict

Video of Russian soldiers saving a small child during the battle between the forces of Russia and Ukraine

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video presented as showing Russian soldiers saving a small child during the battle between Russia and Ukraine. FACTLY’s review identifies this specific video as an old recording from Iraq, not footage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It reports that the same video had been posted by the CBS Mornings YouTube channel in 2017 under the title “Dramatic video shows American aid worker rescuing Iraqi child.” That provenance supports the review’s conclusion that the video was misrepresented when linked to the conflict: the cited earlier posting identifies the scene as an American aid worker rescuing an Iraqi child, while the review says the video was shot in Iraq and was unrelated to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The supplied excerpt does not give further details about how FACTLY verified the location or the incident, so it does not support claims about additional checks.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaWar & conflict

NATO සංවිධානය සහ රුසියාව අතර න්‍යෂ්ටික යුද්ධයක් ඇතිවිය හැකි බවට BBC අනතුරු හැඟවීමක් ???

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigates a video circulating on social media that appeared to show BBC news reporting a risk of nuclear war between NATO and Russia. It says the video also suggested Russia might launch a nuclear attack on Britain and that the Queen had left Buckingham Palace for a safe location. The review’s central finding is that the BBC had not reported such a story: it says it found no media reports of the depicted conflict and that the BBC had not reported the alleged nuclear threat or confrontation between Russian forces and NATO. These points address the specific video and warning in the claim, rather than the general possibility of conflict.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaWar & conflict

රුසියානු – යුක්රේන යුද ගැටුම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ව්‍යාජ සටහන් පෙළක්!

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review examined several posts circulating after Russia launched military operations in Ukraine. They claimed that the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) would hold protests outside the Russian Embassy on February 24 and 25, 2022, and that JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake would give a related public lecture. Other posts falsely presented a mocking message about Sri Lanka’s response as an extraordinary government announcement, and suggested that a Hiru News post reported a group including Bimal Rathnayake had left to support Ukraine. The review also assessed a poster using images of Dissanayake and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (“සමාජ මාධ්‍ය සටහන් : යුක්රේනයට අත නොතබනු! යනුවෙන් ජනතා උද්ඝෝෂණ පෙබරවාරි 24 වන දා සවස 03.30ට සහ පෙබරවාරි 25 වන දා සිකුරාදා පෙරවරු 10.00 ට රුසියානු තානාපති කාර්යාලය ඉදිරිපිටි ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ විසින් පැවැත් වෙන බවට සටහන් කිහිපයක් සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ පළ වී තිබුණේ මෙලෙසින්.”; “Update : යුක්‍රේනයේ සහයට බිමල් රත්නායක ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායමක් අද දිවයිනෙන් පිටත් වෙයි යනුවෙන් සඳහන් කරමින් හිරු පුවත් අංශය විසින් යොමු කරන ලද සටහනක් බවට හඟවමින් මෙය ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබුණා.”) To check the alleged JVP events, the publisher said it reviewed the party’s and its members’ official Facebook pages and looked for media coverage. It reported finding no announcement or report of the proposed protests or lecture. The publisher also contacted JVP media coordinator Upul Ranjan, who said the party had organised neither event and that the circulating claims were false. The review distinguished those allegations from a separate protest: Ukrainian tourists did demonstrate outside the Russian Embassy in Colombo on February 25, asking Russia to stop its invasion. (“ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ නිල ෆේස්බුක් පිටු හරහා හෝ එහි සමාජිකයන්ගේ ෆේස්බුක් නිල පිටු හරහා හෝ එවන් උද්ඝෝෂණයක් සංවිධානය කරන බවට හෝ දේශනයක් සංවිධානය කළ බවට හෝ කිසිදු සඳහනක් නොවුණි.”; “අප මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණු මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක උපුල් රංජන් මහතාගෙන් විමසීමක් කළ අතර ඔහු සඳහන් කළේ, එවන් උද්ඝෝෂණයක් හෝ දේශනයක් ජවිපෙ පක්ෂය විසින් සංවිධානය නොකළ බවත් එවැනි උද්ඝෝෂණ පැවැත්වූ බවට සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ සංසරණය වන්නේ අසත්‍ය සටහන් බවයි.”; “නමුත් ඊයේ (25) දිනයේදී යුක්රේන සංචාරකයින් පිරිසක් කොළඹ, රුසියානු තානාපති කාර්යාලය ඉදිරිපිට විරෝධතාවක යෙදී තිබුණා.”) For the purported government statement, the review compared the mocking claim with the official Foreign Ministry statement as described in its reporting. That statement expressed concern about the escalation in Ukraine, called for restraint and an end to hostilities, and urged a diplomatic resolution; it did not say that Sri Lanka could not help Ukraine. The review also found that the alleged Hiru News post about Rathnayake was not on the outlet’s official Facebook account, and that the poster featuring Dissanayake and Zelenskyy was fabricated, according to the JVP media coordinator. Thus, the posts combined false attributions and fabricated material with a separate, real protest by Ukrainian tourists. (“විදේශ අමාත්‍යාංශය නිල නිවේදනයක් නිකුත් කර ඇති අතර එහි සඳහන් වන්නේ යුක්රේනයේ ගැටුම්කාරී තත්වය මෑතකදී උත්සන්නවීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් ලක් රජය දැඩි කණස්සල්ලට පත්ව සිටින බවයි.”; “Update : යුක්‍රේනයේ සහයට බිමල් රත්නායක ඇතුළු කණ්ඩායමක් දිවයිනෙන් පිටව යයි බවට දක්වමින් සඳහන් කළ සටහන හිරු නිල ෆේස්බුක් ගිණුමේ දක්වා නොතිබුණු අතර මෙය හුදෙක් උපහාසාත්මක කෝණයෙන් පළ කරන ලද සටහනකි.”; “අනුර කුමාර දිසානායක මහතා සහ යුක්රේන ජනාධිපතිගේ ඡායාරූප යොදාගෙන නිර්මාණය කර ඇති පෝස්ටරයද ව්‍යාජ ලෙස සැකසූ අසත්‍ය සටහන් බවයි අප කළ විමසීමේදී ජවිපෙ මාධ්‍ය සම්බන්ධීකාරක උපුල් රංජන් පවසා සිටියේ.”)