What is Real or Fake About The War in Ukraine
As emotions run high, so does misinformation and outright lies.
It’s been nearly a month since Russia invaded Ukraine, and more people seem to care than those who had been shrugging it off. Many people watching this war have been inspired by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s leadership and awed by the Ukrainian people’s fierce dedication to fight for their country. At the same time, reports of the frequent air raid sirens in many Ukrainian cities, Russia bombing a children and maternity hospital in Mariupol, the family shot at checkpoint while trying to flee for safety, and fears that Putin would use nukes against Ukraine have many people upset, on edge, and overall emotional about this war.
As a result, misinformation and confusion are flowing just about everywhere. Some of it is totally deliberate, such as Putin’s propaganda that Ukraine is full of Nazis and the country needs to be rescued from them (which is all nonsense because Zelenskyy is Jewish, but sadly many Russians believe the lies, including those soldiers who shot that family). And then there are some reports that aren’t outright lies but are things that aren’t fully explained, corrected information that comes later after an incident, and speculation that spreads worse than wildfire. Let’s take a look at some of the well-known misinformation to explain why they happen and why they aren’t really malicious lies.
The Girl Who Made Poland’s Donald Tusk Proud
You might’ve seen this pic floating around social media in recent days. It shows a young girl sucking on a lollipop with blue and yellow ribbons in her hair while holding a rifle, as if she’s ready to shoot at any Russian who walks by. The photo has been widely shared on social media, especially by Donald Tusk, the former Prime Minister of Poland and the former President of the European Council. In his caption, he seems both proud and nervous that this young girl is willing to fight for her country, as if to show all Ukrainians are tough, including its children.
Thing is, that photo is staged.
And it was staged by the girl’s father. He even said so on Facebook.
The father, Oleksii Kyrychenko who’s hobby is photography, actually took the pic just two days before Putin launched attacks on Ukraine. He wanted to show the world what the war would look like in his country, as he explained on his Instagram account:
“The nervous tension was very great during the last weeks before the war. The West and intelligence told us about inevitable war, but it was unbelievable for us. At the same time the western society demonstrated they are «concerned» and didn’t perform any sanctions against Russia.
I decided to make some photos which could attract attention to the possible war. I wish to demonstrate how Ukraine may look in the nearest future.”
Clearly, Kyrychenko succeeded in drawing attention to the realities many Ukrainians are facing. Unfortunately though, many people worldwide think this photo is real, not staged, and will go down as a famous war photo. If they only knew…
But why are people getting excited by this pic and not wondering if the gun is loaded or not? Honestly, war is brutal to everyone and seeing children suffer or at least being affected by it is heartbreaking. It’s kind of like that famous photo of the girl running naked from a napalm attack during the Vietnam War; seeing a child suffer during war is messed up. And then there are images of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s a knee-jerk, or even, a heart-jerking reaction to see a child with a lollipop in her mouth and a rifle in her lap, being both a child and a fighter all at once. Kyrychenko succeeded in tugging at many people’s hearts, just not at getting them to decipher what is real and what’s staged.
The 13 Heroic Soliders Who Didn’t Die After All
This story needs no introduction:
Amazing, right? I was both heartbroken and inspired by the bravery of those 13 soldiers. They knew they were facing death when they said “this is it” yet gave the enemy the verbal middle finger to prove they were not afraid of them and thought so less of them. Even Zelenskyy said he would give all 13 of them the Hero of Ukraine medals posthumously.
But amidst all the pride and admiration for those soldiers, it eventually came out that they weren’t all killed after all, according Ukraine’s navy which they posted on Facebook:
“We are very happy to know that our brothers are alive and well!…At the same time, the marines bravely fought back the attacks of Russian occupants twice…they were unable to continue protecting the island.”
So, was this all fake news? Propaganda? Reporters not doing their job well?
Yes and no. Both Axios and the BBC admit the audio recording is unverified, meaning nothing official declares that this exchange really happened between the Ukrainian border guards and the Russian military off Snake Island. It has been widely reported that an Ukrainian government official shared this audio, but who is this official? And that audio recording could be from anywhere in Ukraine, not necessarily Snake Island.
But then again, revealing who this government official is could be dangerous. There’s a war going on and even Zelenskyy could be killed at any given moment. Keeping this official’s identity confidential is a wise idea in this case. Unfortunately, it could lead to some cynics to believe it is all made up, which is exactly what Vladimir Putin, an enthusiast for misinformation, division, and confusion, wants.
That’s what’s so tricky during this war: there’s a risk of playing into his playbook. Putin is well-known for turning towards conspiracy theories, misinformation and such in order to sow division and create chaos so he’ll win whatever battle he is stirring up or taking advantage of. This is why media literacy is so important now and but cynicism cannot rule the day either.
Which leads us to something Putin himself had nothing to do with…
The Donation Leonardo DiCaprio Never Gave:
You might’ve seen that tweet going around that Leonardo DiCaprio donated $10 million to Ukraine, mainly because his grandmother was born there. That tweet was shared very quickly and even the news media picked it up, from entertainment news sources to even the general news sources. Another hero in Ukraine’s war with Russia, and it came from a major Hollywood actor with ties to the country, and also is known for donating millions to humanitarian causes over the years.
However, nothing about this story is true. None of it!
DiCaprio never gave $10 million to Ukraine, and his grandmother was probably not even born in that country. In fact, the story came about when an obscure news site in the South American country of Guyana wrote about it. According to its editor, who later retracted the report, he said “his primary source for DiCaprio's supposed $10 million donation had been a Facebook post from a Ukrainian woman whose posts about the war with Russia have generally been accurate. Carpen said he had also seen other Ukrainians on Facebook posting about the supposed donation.”
But even though the editor retracted the story, news of the major donation was all over social media and reported on many sites - from celeb gossip to general news sites all over the world. No, really! From some Polish news sites to India’s noted Hindustan Times to France’s cable news channel Euronews. Even conservatives news sites like the Washington Examiner reported it.
And yet, no one seemed to stop to fact-check this story. Not even the respected news publications in the world. Why so? Maybe it is because of DiCaprio’s well publicized donations, like $1 million to Haiti after its 2010 earthquake or giving $3 million to wildfire relief in Australia in 2020. He’s known for donating money to major causes, so why wouldn’t he donate money to Ukraine? As for his grandmother, even I have read over the years that she was a refugee from Russia to Germany a hundred years ago. Now, Ukraine is obviously not Russia, despite what Putin says. But then again, a century ago, the Russian Empire still existed and Ukraine was not an independent country on its own. So, maybe there was some sort of confusion or wishful thinking over here.
But either way, many news outlets got caught up in what sounded like an incredible story, and none doubled checked to make sure it wasn’t false. As Daniel Dale of CNN said, “The saga of the nonexistent $10 million donation is a case study in how bad information can bubble up from the online fringes to mainstream media outlets -- with outlet after outlet, big and small alike, simply repeating the story without independently verifying it.”
When there’s war between nations, there’s war over information. Both sides want to lie or exaggerate their successes and the enemy’s failures. Both sides want to take advantage of people’s emotions, sine war is as emotional as it can get. And audiences play their part by letting their emotions get their worst of them. But who can blame anyone following a war? It’s depressing, despairing, frightening, and so many other emotions. Some people are eager for hope. And when there are stories of heroism, it’s pretty natural to devour them. All this are solid reasons for misinformation, confusion, factually incorrect reports and downright lies to go around like a plague. A good example is in 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait. It was widely reported that the Iraqi soldiers had taken Kuwaiti babies out of incubators during the invasion. That helped get the United States, and the rest of the world, behind in driving Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait.
But, that story was never true, and it was used to “sell” the idea of going to war with Iraq. Come to think of it, that amateur photographer mentioned above is doing the same by using staged images of his daughter to sell the Ukrainian war to those who could help his country. One reason why that is wrong is because there was likely never a need. Another reason is that it takes advantage of people’s emotions - both news reporters and the audience.
The same is happening in Russia, with Putin’s government and state-run media insisting that Nazis are everywhere in Ukraine and need to be driven out. Some Russians believe it, some are entirely against the war. But just another example of how the news media, and social media users, can be used to manipulate support for an armed conflict - or any conflict.
Obviously, it is up to news professionals to not let our emotions get the worst of us, or the best of us. Easier said than done during a war, as noted above. Biases are naturally running high,of course, but it must be done somehow. Misinformation is everywhere, and this is the perfect time to manipulate emotions. One slight error, and who knows what can happen.
And hopefully, even social media users will not let their guard down during this time.
Other readings I recommend:
Here are some news articles from around the world to help you decipher what is fake and what is real reporting from the war in Ukraine.
The Irish Times and Israel’s Haaretz have provided ways to figure out what is a false report and other disinformation.
Deutsche Welle explores a site called War on Fakes that may actually be Russian propaganda.
And the awesome investigative news site, ProPublica, takes a look at the industry behind fake news during this war.
We should support national, state, and individual sovereignty, everywhere. We should oppose those who aggress sovereignty, everywhere. As for what we should do as a people, and as a nation, that I do not know, we all should have the right to do nothing, the right to give, or even the right to volunteer; but we must not become that which aggresses the sovereignty of our people, for the sovereignty claim of another group of people, or nation.