White House announces bilateral Putin-Zelenskyy meeting
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Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What we know about video allegedly showing captured US tank flying Russian and American flags
In August 2025, as U.S. President Donald Trump prepared to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Russian broadcaster RT circulated a video that claimed to authentically show a captured U.S. tank in Ukraine flying both U.S. and Russian flags. Days before the video started circulating, Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in an unsuccessful bid to secure a peace deal in the war in Ukraine. RT said the footage showed a captured U.S. M113 armored personnel carrier near Mala Tochmacka, an embattled village in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The broadcaster claimed it had received the footage from a soldier in the field. Though RT's report reflected verified details about which Russian forces were fighting near Mala Tochmacka, the video also displayed signs of the use of artificial intelligence. Due to a lack of corroborating evidence, Snopes could not confirm the video's authenticity. In August 2025, days after U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin's unsuccessful bid to end the war in Ukraine through a summit in Alaska, a video (archived) circulated online that claimed to authentically show a captured U.S. tank in Ukraine flying U.S. and Russian flags. One version of the video, posted on a pro-Ukraine X account, had more than 690,000 views at the time of this writing. The video also circulated on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), Instagram (archived), Bluesky (archived) and TikTok (archived). Additionally, Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the video was authentic. The video quickly drew ire from Ukrainian officials. Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, posted (archived) the video on Telegram, describing it as the work of "propagandists" and "the height of insolence." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Trump on Aug. 18, the date the video started circulating, to continue discussions about how to end the war. Snopes could not independently verify where or when the video was recorded. The footage came from RT (archived), previously known as Russia Today, a broadcaster that the European Union suspended shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 for practices of "disinformation and information manipulation." RT said it got the footage from soldiers operating near Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, where fighting had been ongoing since 2022. Snopes, which does not rely on anonymous sources, could not independently verify RT's source. The footage also showed signs of possibly having been created or manipulated by artificial intelligence. The flags on the tank appeared unnaturally bright compared with the rest of the footage. In one clip, the Russian flag appeared to suddenly morph in and out of existence. Given the lack of verifiable information about this video, we could not give it a rating at the time of this writing. We reached out to Vlad Andritsa, the journalist who RT said initially received the footage from Russian soldiers in the field, for information about how he verified it and await a reply. Morphing flags raised AI suspicions Three clips in RT's 46-second video showed a tank, reportedly a captured U.S. M113 armored vehicle, flying Russian and U.S. flags. In the first clip, the vehicle drove along a paved road lined by electricity wires. The flags waved as they would be expected to if they were attached to a moving vehicle but appeared very bright compared with the surrounding green, gray and brown landscape. In the second clip, the Russian flag suddenly appeared to morph in and out of existence. Frame-by-frame analysis of this clip (around time code 0:21) showed the Russian flag change shape from a white blob to a blue-and-white blob and back to a white blob. The American flag remained fully suspended throughout this time. (Telegram @rt_russ) That movement — the sudden shape-shifting of an element of a video — was a characteristic tell of other viral AI-generated videos. The RT video included a third clip that appeared to be a zoomed-out version of the second, where the Russian flag again appeared to morph in and out of existence. RT post reflected real movements in war in Ukraine Though Snopes could not independently verify the authenticity of the video, RT's accompanying report did contain authentic or plausible details about the ongoing war in Ukraine. According to RT, the footage showed a captured M113 armored vehicle near Mala Tochmacka, Ukraine. The U.S. has supplied M113 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine since 2022. RT said the footage showed a vehicle operated by the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, a regiment of the Russian ground forces originally from Chechnya, a semi-independent autonomous region of Russia. Ukrainian officials and Russian war-focused Telegram channels (archived) said fighting occurred near Mala Tochmacka in early August, around a week before RT posted the video of the tank allegedly carrying the U.S. and Russian flags. According to both the above information and geolocated footage published by Ukrainian (time code 0:34, archived) and Russian (time code 2:48) military channels, Ukrainian forces struck Russian armored vehicles near Mala Tochmacka on Aug. 10. However, none of this footage appeared to show the alleged M113 carrying the U.S. and Russian flags. According to the Institute for the Study of War, a nonpartisan public-policy research organization documenting armed conflicts around the world, fighting near Mala Tochmacka continued until Aug. 18, the most recent report at the time of this writing. The ISW reported that the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment was involved in these clashes. Given the above, it was not impossible that the footage authentically showed a recording by a Russian soldier from the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of a captured U.S. tank operated by Russian soldiers near Mala Tochmacka, though Snopes could not independently verify this fact. Ultimately, the video did not contain enough information for Snopes to determine its date or recording location. While Russian troops were no doubt present near Mala Tochmacka around the time the video circulated and could have captured a U.S.-donated M113 armored vehicle, several aspects of the video gave rise to suspicion. RT, a Russian broadcaster that the European Council suspended for its practice of "disinformation and information manipulation," spread the footage from an anonymous source. Additionally, the footage itself showed a Russian flag that appeared to disappear and reappear, a common sign of AI use. provided translations from Russian and Ukrainian to English. COLVIN, JILL, and MICHELLE L. PRICE. "For Trump and Putin, Handshakes on a Red Carpet and a Joint Limo Ride, Then an Abrupt Ending." AP News, 15 Aug. 2025, CORBET, SYLVIE, et al. "Trump Begins Planning for Putin-Zelenskyy Meeting While Affirming US Help with Security Guarantees." AP News, 18 Aug. 2025, Council of the EU. "EU Imposes Sanctions on State-Owned Outlets RT/Russia Today and Sputnik's Broadcasting in the EU." Council of the European Union, March 2, 20222, Harward, Christina, et al. "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 13, 2025." Institute for the Study of War, 13 Aug. 2025, "M113 Family of Vehicles." BAE Systems, Accessed 19 Aug. 2025. Malyasov, Dylan. "Vietnam-Era M113s Save Lives in Ukraine War." Defence Blog, 10 Jan. 2025, Sobieski, Jessica, et al. "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 18, 2025." Institute for the Study of War, 18 Aug. 2025, "Влад Андрица." Telegram, Командование Мотострелкового Полка Из Чечни Пытается Скрыть Саботаж Среди Военных в Украине. 14 Jun. 2022, "Рапортували, що закріпилися в тюрмі" — поблизу Оріхового три години відбивали штурм російської "броні". Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
North Korean leader's sister says her country will never see the South as a diplomatic partner
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said her country will never see South Korea as a partner for diplomacy, state media reported on Wednesday in what was her latest taunt of Seoul's new efforts to mend ties. Kim Yo Jong, who is one of her brother's top foreign policy officials, denounced the ongoing South Korea-U.S. military drills as a 'reckless' invasion rehearsal and claimed Seoul's peace gestures conceal a 'sinister intention' against Pyongyang. Her comments came during a meeting on Tuesday with senior Foreign Ministry officials about her brother's diplomatic strategies in the face of persistent threats from rivals and a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said. On Monday, Kim Jong Un condemned the South Korean-U.S. military drills and vowed a rapid expansion of his nuclear forces as he inspected his most advanced warship being fitted with nuclear-capable systems. The North's news agency said Kim Yo Jong condemned the South as the 'top-class faithful dog' of the United States and that the reparation of inter-Korean relations desired by Seoul 'will never' happen. The siblings' back-to-back statements followed the latest outreach by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who said last week that Seoul would seek to restore a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement aimed at reducing border tensions, while urging Pyongyang to reciprocate by rebuilding trust and resuming dialogue. Since taking office in June, Lee has moved to repair relations that worsened under his conservative predecessor's hard-line policies, including removing front-line speakers that broadcast anti-North Korean propaganda and K-pop. In a nationally televised speech Friday, Lee said his government respects North Korea's current system and that the wealthier South 'will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and has no intention of engaging in hostile acts.' But he also stressed that the South remains committed to an international push to denuclearize the North and urged Pyongyang to resume dialogue with Washington and Seoul. Angered by expanding South Korean-U.S. military drills, Kim Jong Un last year declared that North Korea was abandoning long-standing goals of a peaceful unification with South Korea and rewrote the North's constitution to mark the South as a permanent enemy. Kim Yo Jong has repeatedly dismissed calls to revive negotiations aimed at winding down the North's nuclear and missile programs, which derailed in 2019 following her brother's collapsed summit with U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Kim Jong Un has made Moscow the priority of his foreign policy, sending troops and weapons to support President Vladimir Putin's war, while also using the conflict as a distraction to accelerate his military nuclear program. In her meeting on Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong suggested that Pyongyang seeks to compete with Seoul diplomatically, claiming the South 'will not even have a subordinate role in the regional diplomatic arena,' which she claimed will be centered on the North. Solve the daily Crossword
NBC News
25 minutes ago
- NBC News
Trump and Zelenskyy's meeting with European leaders marks a historic moment
WASHINGTON — Seven European leaders joined Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington on Monday in a rare display of trans-Atlantic unity. The gathering marked the first time in decades that such a broad delegation of allies had assembled at the White House under such pressing circumstances. Shortly after noon, one by one, the heads of state and NATO partners passed the White House gates, where they were met by President Donald Trump's chief of protocol, and in Zelenskyy's case, by Trump himself. Some met with Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and other officials that morning. Others made their way to the White House directly from Dulles and other airports. They were there to bolster Zelenskyy after a disastrous White House visit in February, when he clashed with Trump and Vice President JD Vance — and after Trump held a nearly three-hour one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. The show of support for Zelenskyy involved French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who pivoted from their own national agendas to present a united front as Trump seeks an urgent end to Russia's war in Ukraine. The display took place within days of Trump's meeting with Putin in Alaska and ahead of a possible Trump-brokered meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy as Trump casts himself as a potential peace broker. Inside the Oval Office on Monday, evoking a boardroom scene, Trump sat behind the Resolute desk, military flags at his back, as Zelenskyy and the European delegation faced him, as reflected in a photo shared by the White House. Made of oak timbers taken from a British ship, the desk is a hulking 19th century reminder of goodwill between important allies, a gift from Britain's Queen Victoria to the United States. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are seen orbiting in the background, along with senior White House staff members. There are few precedents for the gathering, which merged diplomacy with Trump's usual verve. In 1941, Franklin Roosevelt hosted Winston Churchill off the coast of Newfoundland to sign the Atlantic Charter, laying out the Allied aims for the end of World War II and meetings that would decide the fate of Europe and Asia. During the Cold War, summits in Washington helped decide the terms of German reunification. They included meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev amid a key question over whether Germany would join NATO. And in 1950, the British prime minister rushed to Washington to consult Harry Truman over fears of the possible use of nuclear weapons during the Korean War. 'Washington has often been the scene of these great moments of diplomacy. But it was the speed with which this came together that was so striking and sets this apart,' said Marc Selverstone, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. 'Everyone realized this was a crisis moment.' The urgency was reflected in how quickly the past few days' events came together: Trump's talks with Putin on Friday were followed by the leaders' arrival in Washington on Monday morning. 'Every single one of them got on a plane 48 hours later and flew to the United States of America,' said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, rushing to Washington in a bid to keep momentum toward peace in Ukraine alive. The day also offered other made-for-TV moments, as Trump escorted the leaders to a gift shop of sorts, which he dubbed the 'Monica Lewinsky room' in reference to a former president's trysts, where he showed off rows of fire engine red hats emblazoned with his campaign slogans, including one for 2028. At another point, Trump deflected a question to Zelenskyy about Ukraine's elections to joke about serving a third term himself. Told through photos shared online by his team, Trump presented a towering figure in Monday's meetings. In a picture posted by deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, Zelenskyy stood before a map of Ukraine as Trump looked down at him. Another image posted by the White House showed Trump seated behind his historic desk, this time with Vance and Rubio before him, the phone handset resting on the desk as he talked with Putin. For Zelenskyy, Monday also offered a reset. After a tense Oval Office meeting this year, he struck a more diplomatic tone Monday, offering Trump and others his thanks more than a dozen times, including for the invitation, for Trump's efforts 'to stop killings and stop this war,' for Melania Trump's letter to Putin asking him to protect children, for a program to purchase American weapons and to the European partners for their support. On his X account, he offered profuse, continued thanks well into Tuesday. Wearing a suit instead of his usual military fatigues, he told Trump as he greeted him that the attire was 'the best I had.' 'I love it,' Trump said, ultimately sharing a video of the warm exchange on his social media platform, Truth Social. Asked what his message to the people of Ukraine was, Trump told a reporter, 'We love them.' Vance, who had publicly clashed with Zelenskyy in their last White House meeting, also sought to smooth relations, posting a photo of their handshake. Finland's participation carried its own symbolic weight, with one reminder of a path out of a seemingly intractable conflict with a nuclear-powered Soviet Union, which Stubb referred to directly. 'We, of course, have our own historical experience with Russia from World War II, the Winter War and the War of Continuation,' Stubb said. 'And if I look at the silver lining of where we stand right now, we found a solution in 1944, and I'm sure we'll be able to find a solution in 2025.'
