South Africa, ignore false reports and unrelated photos of Germany 'withdrawing troops' from Ukraine
IN SHORT: Social media posts claim that over 5,000 German troops were withdrawn from Ukraine amid fears that Russia would attack Germany. But the German military has not had troops in Ukraine. The country recently deployed soldiers to be stationed in Lithuania as part of an allied defence against Russia.
A series of Facebook posts from South Africa and elsewhere claim that in November 2025, Germany withdrew "over 5,000 troops from Ukraine amid fears of a Russian attack on Germany". Many of the posts include three photos of uniformed soldiers as evidence.
But are these claims accurate?
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Russian invasion of Ukraine
In early 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which by late 2025 was ongoing. Ukraine receives financial and military support from various countries, many of them part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or Nato, an alliance of about 30 countries.
Germany is a long-standing member of Nato. At time of publication, Ukraine was not a member, but a close partner. According to its website, Nato's current position is: "Since 2014, in the wake of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, cooperation has been intensified in critical areas. Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, NATO and Allies have provided unprecedented levels of support."
In 2023, the Nato-Ukraine Council was established to closely cooperate and engage in dialogue around the country's pending membership.
Germany's involvement in Ukraine
Germany provides Ukraine with substantial aid and military support, such as weapons and training for Ukrainian soldiers.
In May 2025, it was announced that Germany was deploying almost 5,000 troops to be permanently stationed in Lithuania, a fellow Nato member geographically closer to Ukraine and Russia. This was a significant development, marking the first time Germany had stationed forces in a foreign country long-term since world war two.
The German military is called the Bundeswehr. A government notice from April 2024 confirmed that Germany did not have troops in Ukraine, with the sole members of the Bundeswehr in Ukraine being military attaché staff.
Even the prospect of sending German troops to Ukraine as part of a proposed Nato peacekeeping mission after the conflict ends has been controversial.
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The images accompanying the claim in many posts are also unrelated and not recent. Two appeared online before the conflict, in 2013 and in 2019, and the third is an unrelated image posted online in 2023 that may be from 2014.
The claim may have originated from the announcement of German troops being deployed to Lithuania. But there are no official reports of German troops in Ukraine, either deployed or being withdrawn.
