Nearly 4.8 million Ukrainian children have been displaced amid the Russian invasion, but some online claim the attack is a "special operation" to help save their lives.
A Facebook post shared April 16 shows an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin kissing a child's hand.
"President Vladimir Putin released 35,000 children from tunnels and subways in Ukraine," reads the caption of the post.
The post includes a link to an April 5 article from Real Raw News, a website that has previously published false claims. Citing an unnamed Mar-a-Lago source, the article claims Putin told former President Donald Trump about this rescue effort in a phone call.
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The post generated over 200 interactions in less than a week. Another Facebook post shared April 11 includes a link to the Real Raw News article with the caption, "Finally some good news." Similar posts have amassed hundreds of interactions on Twitter.
But the claim is false. There is no evidence Putin rescued 35,000 imprisoned Ukrainian children. The claim ties into the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment.
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