Ukraine: Claims That War is Fake Gone Viral

By Finn D

The War Is Not Fake

One year ago, almost to the day, Russian military forces invaded Ukrainian territory, starting a war that has proliferated terror and vast damage across the nation.

The first anniversary of the invasion has provoked many right-winged influencers in the US with vast numbers of followers to spread baseless and unjustified claims that the war is fake. These people have suggested that the war is just a hoax, a twisted lie spun by Western governments to create a case against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Many of these false claims have argued that there is a ‘lack of war footage’ (commentator) and that there were ‘no detailed updates’ (Twitter influencer) about the conflict. However, these claims can easily be dismissed as false due to the evidence and footage of global broadcasts, foreign governments and news updates that are accessible.

At the beginning of the invasion, video footage of an apartment building in Kiev which had been hit by a missile was shared across the world, and images of this same building have recently been shared again on social media. However, in the recent images, the building had been repaired and partially reconstructed, leading to claims that the building was never hit, as it would not be possible for them to repair it during the war.

Over the past few days, a video showing a reporter in Ukraine standing in front of many corpses with one of these corpses supposedly ‘moving’ has gone viral. Tweets claiming that this is ‘proof’ of actors who are being specifically hired to be these dead bodies in order to support the Western side of the conflict have been viewed by millions.

Photos and a video shared through social media in the past couple of days claim to show the revealing of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s body double. This claim has been disproven and the man is Zelensky’s personal bodyguard.

The war in Ukraine has not only led to devastation and death across the country, but has also given rise to large numbers of right-wing influencers sharing their baseless claims with millions of followers on social media.