War in Ukraine: Fact-checking Russian claims that Nato troops are fighting in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin says there are military units in Ukraine "under the de-facto command of Western advisers".

Claims have also appeared on Russian television and social media channels that Nato troops are actively involved in the war.

Nato member countries have been providing weaponry and logistical , but have said they aren't sending troops into Ukraine, which is not a member of the alliance.

We've looked at the evidence provided for these claims of Nato boots on the ground in Ukraine.

In his national address on 21 September, President Putin said: "The Kyiv regime has launched new gangs of foreign mercenaries and nationalists, military units trained to Nato standards and under the de-facto command of Western advisers."

It's well known that foreign fighters have ed Ukrainian military units. However, claims are being made by Russian officials and media outlets of serving Nato troops on the ground in Ukraine.

On 13 September, Ruslan Ostashko, the host of Vremya Pokazhet (Time Will Tell) on Russia's Channel One said: "In the grand scheme of things, Ukrainian soldiers are there more for appearances, for having photos taken and ing videos to TikTok, but it's mainly Nato troops fighting there."

Throughout the programme, footage taken from social media of foreigners allegedly fighting in Ukraine was shown as "evidence" of Nato boots on the ground.

Andrei Marochko, a military spokesman for the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) in the east of Ukraine, told Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti: "Our intelligence agencies revealed the arrival of regular Nato officers in the Kharkiv region.

"The purpose of their trip to this area is to organise interaction between foreign and Ukrainian units."

Mr Marochko has also told Russian state TV that Nato officers have arrived in Kramatorsk, a city in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

Other claims are more generally about the presence of foreign fighters and don't make the direct connection to Nato - but leave the link implied.

For example, Vladimir Kornilov, a columnist for RIA Novosti, has said there had been a "dramatic increase in video footage of people who've come to 'liberate' Izyum, with English being spoken."

It's important to make a clear distinction between those foreign fighters who've travelled independently to Ukraine and troops deployed by Nato member countries.

Russian media outlets haven't provided evidence of serving Nato personnel on the ground, only pointing to the presence of individual foreign fighters on the battlefield.

One of the fighters shown on the Vremya Pokazhet television programme is Malcolm Nance, a former US naval officer, who has regularly posted videos of himself in Ukraine over recent months.

One video, highlighted in the TV programme, shows Mr Nance with an artillery battery behind him, firing what he describes as "the first artillery shot of a massive combined arms, multi-axis ground offensive."