{"id":1460732,"date":"2022-05-02T16:44:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T20:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1460732"},"modified":"2022-05-02T16:45:02","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T20:45:02","slug":"fact-check-did-ian-mckellen-visit-ukraine-in-may-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-did-ian-mckellen-visit-ukraine-in-may-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Did Ian McKellen Visit Ukraine in May 2022?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-did-ian-mckellen-visit-ukraine-in-may-2022%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1460732&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>A post <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/BHVTS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared on Facebook<\/a> allegedly shows British actor Ian McKellen visiting Lviv, Ukraine in May 2022.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Verdict: False<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The picture was taken in London in 2021. McKellen confirmed on Twitter that he has not visited Lviv or Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Fact Check:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Actress and U.N. humanitarian Angelina Jolie visited the city of Lviv in western Ukraine April 30 to speak with displaced Ukrainians and refugees, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/apr\/30\/angelina-jolie-makes-surprise-visit-to-ukraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Guardian<\/a>. She allegedly promised \u201cshe would come again\u201d to the city in the future, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n<p>A post shared on Facebook May 1 claims McKellen also recently visited the city. The post includes a photo that shows the actor posing with a fan. \u201cGandalf (Sir Ian Murray McKellen) himself in Ukraine,\u201d reads the post\u2019s caption. \u201cThe picture below was taken in Lviv today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The picture predates the current Ukrainian conflict and was not taken in Lviv. A reverse image search revealed the photo was first shared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=5054342701261023&#038;set=pb.100000560284363.-2207520000..&#038;type=3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a> in November 2021 by a user named Maksym Bespalov. The location is tagged as <a href=\"https:\/\/thegrapes.co.uk\/?fbclid=IwAR26RBrILOMbYUTYhxwIMDGhqLTj1l3AjNNCQZUTwSv4MazylLfOsGz9PBQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Grapes<\/a>, a pub in London that McKellen owns, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-6515317\/Fury-pub-owned-Lord-Rings-star-Sir-Ian-McKellen-bans-28-regulars-without-explanation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Daily Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bespalov <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=5546763325352289&#038;set=pb.100000560284363.-2207520000..&#038;type=3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">re-shared<\/a> the picture April 30, several weeks into Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, and tagged the location as the Drunk Cherry Pub in Lviv. This appears to have sparked the online rumor.<\/p>\n<p>McKellen addressed the viral claim on Twitter shortly after the misleading post appeared.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Despite reports and supposed photographs circulating online, I have not visited Lviv or elsewhere in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IanMcKellen\/status\/1520900436949356544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 1, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cDespite reports and supposed photographs circulating online, I have not visited Lviv or elsewhere in Ukraine,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IanMcKellen\/status\/1520900436949356544?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet<\/a> reads. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2022\/03\/11\/fact-check-leonardo-dicaprio-donation-ukraine\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Did Leonardo Dicaprio Donate $10 Million To Support Ukraine Through The International Visegrad Fund?)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a reply to McKellen\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Maksymbespalov\/status\/1520913062596907013?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tweet<\/a>, Bespalov apologized for his Facebook post and claimed it was a joke, saying, \u201cIt was my joke on FB, sorry. I also wrote about Bruce Lee, but medias published only a news about you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A post shared on Facebook allegedly shows British actor Ian McKellen visiting Lviv, Ukraine in May 2022.Verdict: False The picture was taken in London in 2021. McKellen confirmed on Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":1481282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1460732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1460732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1460732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1460732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1460732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}