Nearly two weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the flow of false or misleading information about the war hasn’t let up and now there are some outlandish theories being shared online.
Some have begun to circulate claims the war is a hoax, a media fabrication, or has been exaggerated by the West in terms of its scale.
We’ve examined some of them.
False claims about “crisis actors”
The video is unrelated to the war. It was shot in 2020 on the production set of Ukrainian TV series Contamin.
The male actor can be seen in behind-the-scenes images from the settweeted in December 2020.
Moving corpse
A video of a news reporter in front of multiple body bags has gone viral on several major social networks, and has been spread widely by pro-Kremlin accounts.
False wooden guns claim
A screenshot of a Fox News broadcast showing two Ukrainian men holding what appear to be wooden guns has gone viral.
Steven Seagal is not fighting in Ukraine
A false tweet – seemingly sent by CNN’s verified Twitter account – claims US actor Steven Seagal, who is a dual US-Russian national, has been spotted “among Russian special forces” near Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv.
Along with ordinary users, the tweet has been picked up by influential accounts with huge followings, including US podcast host Joe Rogan, who shared it with his 14 million followers on Instagram.
Russian diplomat shares false tweet
A Russian diplomat has shared screenshots showing a fabricated story about a journalist being killed in Ukraine during the Russian invasion.
