COLUMBUS, Ohio — The photos and videos from Ukraine over the last 24 hours are a lot to take in. In the middle of it all, there's a lot of disinformation spreading across your feeds.
Claim: Russia is defending ethnic Russians in Ukraine
Answer: False
Source: U.S. Department of State
Here's what we found:
According to the State Department's website: "There are no credible reports of any ethnic Russians or Russian speakers being under threat from the Ukrainian government."
Claim: Ukraine is a threat to Russia.
Answer: False.
Our source: Dr. Anthony DeStefanis, Associate Professor of History at Otterbein University.
Here’s what we found:
"Russia is a much bigger country with a much bigger military and the Ukraine, broadly speaking, has not expressed any interest….Putin has claimed over and over again over the last days and weeks that yeah, that Ukraine is a threat to Russia, and therefore, he's trying to come up with a sort of like a justification,” DeStefanis said. "The accurate way to understand this is that this is a war of choice.”
Claim: Photo shows a Russian aircraft downed by Ukraine
It appears Tweets like this one, that has more than 10,000 likes.
Answer: False
Our source: A reverse image search
Here's what we found:
Our search reveals this photo has been posted online well before this latest invasion. The photo is a mirrored image of the original taken decades ago. It was posted by Flickr user Carl Ford.
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