Ukraine war: Kremenchuk shopping centre attack claims fact-checked

Within hours of the attack on a shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, false and unproven claims began circulating online.

Stories were spread by Russian Telegram channels and by Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy ambassador to the United Nations. They included rumours that the attack was "false" or "staged" - and were repeated on Russian television. 

On Tuesday, Russia's defence ministry released a statement claiming the shopping centre was "non-functioning" and that the bombing of a nearby ammunitions dump sparked a secondary fire at the centre. Those claims...