A roundup of some of the week’s most popular, but completely untrue, stories and images. None of these are legitimate, even though they were widely shared on social media. The Associated Press checked them.
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No, France has not deployed troops to fight Russia with Ukraine
CLAIM: France sent troops to fight in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
THE FACTS: The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on X that France has not sent troops to Ukraine, calling the claim “disinformation.” Reports on the deployment cited a May 3 blog post by Stephen Bryen, deputy undersecretary of the Defense Department during the Reagan administration.
“France has officially sent its first troops to Ukraine,” the blog post reads. “They were deployed in support of the Ukrainian 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade in Slavyansk. The French soldiers come from the 3rd Infantry Regiment of France, one of the most important elements of the French Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère).
It adds that 100 French troops of the expected 1,500 have arrived so far.
Many social media posts include a screenshot of the blog post as it reappeared on another website. One such X-post had received more than 3,000 likes and shares on Friday.
But the French Foreign Ministry explicitly denied a deployment of French troops to fight in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“FAKE NEWS ALERT,” it reads wrote on X. “Disinformation campaigns about France’s support for Ukraine are as active as ever. Let’s see. France has not sent troops to Ukraine.”
Macron said in an interview published on May 3 that he has not ruled out the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, echoing comments he has made in recent months. He did not announce any deployment of the French army.
The claim that spread online quoted a post published on Bryen’s blog on May 4 entitled: “France sends troops to Ukraine.” The post does not attribute its reporting to any source.
Bryen published another blog post on Monday in which he acknowledged that he “could be wrong” about France’s alleged involvement in Ukraine. He also provided sources for his original post and explained his reporting ethos.
The earliest source Bryen cited about France sending troops is an April 12 article from a Russian military news website, which notes that it “cannot confirm or deny this information.” It relies on reports from a Russian Telegram channel and a Russian journalist, who reportedly said the information is unconfirmed.
An April 13 report from Sputnik, a Russian state news agency, refers to Russia’s Telegram channel and quotes a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman who previously warned that “France would prepare 1,500 troops to be sent to Ukraine in April.” The same text is used in a Facebook post published the same day by a page that describes itself as “a gaming platform used for comedy and opinions from spontaneous dialogue.” Bryen mentioned both.
Finally, Bryen posted an April 14 post from a website that regularly promotes conspiracy theories.
In response to a request for comment from The Associated Press, Bryen pointed to the second blog post and wrote: “As far as denials go, the French always deny that there is anyone in Ukraine at all.” By Friday, he had removed the links to all these sources except the Sputnik post.
France’s 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment, of the Foreign Legion, has been stationed in Kourou, French Guiana since 1973. His responsibilities include protecting the Guyana Space Center and combating illegal gold mining.
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Hackers did not project the Soviet Victory banner on Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate this week
CLAIM: Images show the Soviet victory banner projected by hackers onto the east side of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate on Tuesday evening, ahead of the annual festivities marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
THE FACTS: The images are fabricated. Berlin police and the company that manages the Brandenburg Gate confirmed to The Associated Press that the Soviet victory banner was not on the monument, one of Germany’s most important ones, this week.
Social media users shared photos and videos making it appear as if the banner was projected onto the gate ahead of this week’s memorial celebrations.
“Last night hackers breached the projection on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and placed the Soviet victory banner,” reads an X-post that had received about 21,000 likes and more than 5,300 shares by Friday.
A TikTok video that has been viewed more than 198,000 times had a similar caption: “Last night hackers hacked the projection on the Brandenburg Gate and reminded authorities who ever defeated them. The German police have started an investigation.”
Other reports claimed that the alleged hack was a response to Berlin banning Russian symbols during the celebrations.
But an investigation into the reports found no evidence of such activity involving the popular landmark, an 18th-century city gate that symbolized Berlin’s division during the Cold War and became representative of a reunited Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“After evaluating all findings available to the Berlin police, the videos and photos circulating on social media of the alleged projection at the Brandenburg Gate are an optical/graphic fake,” said Susann Barahona, spokesperson for Polizei Berlin, the police force. city. told the AP in an email written in German.
Johanna Steinke, spokesperson for BIM Berliner Immobilienmanagement, a real estate company that manages the Brandenburg Gate, wrote in an email, also in German, that the claim spreading online is a “false report.”
It is unclear how the fabricated images came about.
The Soviet Victory Banner was raised by the Red Army atop the destroyed German Reichstag on April 30, 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, in which the city fell to the Soviets. German dictator Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker the same day.
Flags with a Russian connection were banned on Soviet monuments in Berlin and their immediate vicinity on May 8 and 9, amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, according to a press release from the Berlin police. Veterans, diplomats and other World War II representatives who participated in commemorative events marking the end of the war at these locations were excluded from the regulations. There were also bans in 2023 and 2022, the year Russia invaded Ukraine.
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