From Ghost of Kyiv to ‘crisis actors’: Debunking fake news from the Russia-Ukraine conflict

It’s been two weeks since Russia’s Vladimir Putin announced a “special military exercise” in certain parts of Ukraine, which later turned into a war against Ukraine. Since then, social media has been inundated with visual and most often heart-breaking images —ranging from children confronting soldiers to heavily damaged buildings.

Follow all LIVE updates from the Russia-Ukraine conflict here

However, with the war, as was the case with the coronavirus pandemic, a slew of misleading information has been put up, making it very hard to sift the real from the fake.

We examine a few of these instances and try to uncover the truth.

Ghost of Kyiv

Shortly after the offensive began in Ukraine, social media was flooded with the heroic tale of ‘The Ghost of Kyiv’ — a rogue pilot in an old fighter jet shooting down five Russian aircraft in one day.

The official Ukraine Twitter account first coined the phrase with a cartoon drawing of a pilot - who was referred to as an 'ace' meaning the pilot must have shot down five or more aircraft.

Two days later, posts on Twitter claimed that Ghost had downed 10 military planes and quickly it became one of the most viral tweets. It was even pushed by former Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko who posted an image of the pilot.

The tweets brought in huge scepticism from aviation experts.

Thomas Newdick of The Drive said, "While the odds are very much stacked against this narrative being true, there is the slimmest possibility that something truly extraordinary in the annals of air combat has taken place in the skies over Ukraine, even if it doesn’t include a pilot becoming an ‘ace in a day'."

It was concluded as nothing more than an epic tale coined to keep fading hopes alive.

‘Crisis actors’

In another example of misinformation, there have been several tweets questioning the reality of the invasion in Ukraine.

There are several who have been claiming that the Russia-Ukraine war is, in fact, a war and some have posted tweets showing a video of a young woman and a young man having fake blood applied.

They claim through the tweets that the video of the actor clearly shows that there is no war and it’s a hoax.
However, the tweet is not related to the war. It shows the preparation of a scene for Ukrainian TV series Contamin in 2020.

Fake body bags

There’s another video that is circulating on Twitter which has been put up to show that there are no casualties in the Russia.

The video shows a news reporter in front of several body bags. After a few seconds, one of the body bags starts moving and a man removes the cover.

Social media posts claim the video was shot in Ukraine and proves the war is either a hoax or manufactured by "Western propaganda".

However, once again the visuals have nothing to do with war.

A deep dive into Twitter shows that the video is actually from a climate change protest organised by "Friday For Future" in Austria's Vienna in February. The body bags, part of the protest, were aimed at showing the dangers of carbon emissions to life on Earth.

Wooden guns

US news channel Fox News showed a video of two Ukrainian men holding wooden guns.

This image, however, was taken during a drill in Kharkiv before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform, per the Associated Press.

Steven Seagal joins Russian troops

Another Twitter image that has gone viral shows US actor Steven Seagal, who is a dual US-Russian national, among Russian special forces near Ukraine's capital of Kyiv.

The tweet carried the image of CNN's verified Twitter handle, which the channel said was fabricated.

CNN later clarified: “The Seagal image is fabricated. CNN never reported anything like this. The shot of Seagal armed and in uniform is from a movie called "Cartels," which was released in 2017, not from the war in Ukraine.”

Ukrainian vice president’s wife

As the war progressed, a photograph of a female Ukrainian soldier went viral on social media, with social media users identifying her as the wife of the 'Ukrainian Vice President', while others claimed that it showed the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, taking up arms.

This can’t be anything but fake as Ukraine does not have a vice president. Also, fact-checkers Logically reported that the image is of a Ukrainian soldier from August 2021. The original photo was taken during a rehearsal for a military parade in Kyiv.

With inputs from agencies

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