Fact Check: Huge Army Of 1 Million Ukrainian Special Forces Did NOT Launch All-Out Attack From North

No Such Attack

Did a huge army of one million Ukrainian special forces launch an all-out attack from the north? No, that’s not true: Such an attack would be impossible. Ukraine’s entire army is estimated to have only around 200,000 active-duty troops and some 900,000 reservists, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Video used in conjunction with the false statement is flagged as for “illustration purposes only.”

The claim appeared in a Facebook post published by The Military U.S on July 14, 2022. The post includes a roughly nine-minute video and text that reads:

Total siege- Huge army of 1 million Ukrainian special forces launched all-out attack from the north!

This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Jul 15 14:14:52 2022 UTC)

There is no way that 1 million Ukrainian special forces could have launched an attack, as Ukraine’s entire army is estimated to have only around 200,000 active-duty troops and some 900,000 reservists. That’s according to data from November 2020 cited by the Council on Foreign Relations, which notes that Russia — by comparison — has roughly 900,000 active-duty troops and 2 million reservists.

There are two other important points worth noting. One, video used in conjunction with the false claim is flagged as for “illustration purposes only.” It does not show actual footage of the supposed attack.

And two, the poster, which identifies as “The Military U.S” does not represent the U.S. military. In fact, until June 6, 2022, the page went by a different name: “Rienarien.” This would be the French equivalent of “Nothingtonothing.” To see the page’s history, check out the “Page transparency” link on the “The Military U.S” Facebook page. A screenshot is included below:

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Jul 15 16:18:20 2022 UTC)