Old, Unrelated Videos Passed Off As Visuals From Ukraine-Russia War
The visuals in the compilation predate the war between Russia and Ukraine.
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A 3:49-minute-long video is being shared on social media with the claim that it shows a compilation of "scenes of the Russia-Ukraine war."
The video is being shared in the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in mounting civilian deaths and over three million people fleeing the war-torn nation, according to the United Nations.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February and has since made gains in parts of south Ukraine, including Melitopol, Kherson, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Mariupol, according to a BBC tracker.
However, we found that the visuals are old and pertain to different incidents that have happened over the years across the world.
CLAIM
The video is being shared by a Facebook user with the caption, "Dangerous war bomb blast fight scene."
The video posted on 1 March had 44 million views at the time of writing this article.
WHAT WE FOUND
With the help of InVid WeVerify Google Chrome extension, a video verification tool, we extracted several keyframes from the video and conducted a reverse image search on Yandex and Google search engines to find the results for the keyframes.
This, along with keywords and clues search, led us to the results for all the video clips of the compilation, and we found that they were related to Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, a simulation from a video game, and an attack on the Syrian city of Daraya.
Let's take a look at the video clips one by one.
VIDEO 1
The first video clip can be seen from 0:01-0:25 seconds. The video is replayed from 3:24-3:49 minutes.
A Yandex reverse image search result led us to the website of Turkish news website Haberler.
A news report from 9 August 2018, originally written in Turkish, read that an Israeli warplane had carried out an airstrike on the besieged Gaza Strip.
The story was published on 9 August 2018.
(Source: Haberler/Screenshot)
Next, we conducted a search on Google, using keywords in Turkish, and found a tweet by 'A Haber' from 10 August 2018.
The caption of the tweet translated to, "Israel's inhumane attacks continue."
VIDEO 2
The next video can be seen from 0:26-0:54 seconds.
In the video, we could see the watermark of DWC, and in the bottom right corner was a logo and a channel named 'Darth Welder Channel'.
The watermark of 'DWC' can be seen in the video.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
Next, using these as keywords, we came across the YouTube channel of 'Darth Welder Channel'. The description of the channel reads that it is based out of Russia and that it uploads videos of the Russian military.
We conducted a Yandex reverse image search on the keyframes extracted from the video and came across the video posted on the channel on 7 August 2018.
The caption read, 'The enemy is DESTROYED! Russian Aviation in action! (sic)' and the video has over 7 million views.
The viral part can be seen from 0:15-0:23 secs and then from 0:43-1:02 mins.
The video was posted on 7 August 2018.
(Source: Darth Walder Channel/Screenshot)
Here's a comparison of the two videos.
Screengrab from viral video (L), screengrab from 2018 video (R).
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
Though we didn't find any credible news reports on the incident, the fact that it predates the invasion makes it clear that the video is not from the ongoing war.
VIDEO 3
This third video can be seen from 0:55 seconds-1:12 minutes.
On a closer look at the video, we could see a watermark that read, 'YouTube/Darya Rev.'
The watermark read 'YouTube/Darya Rev'.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
A Yandex reverse image search on one of the keyframes from the video led us to a video published on the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a US-based newspaper, on 29 October 2015.
The video was titled, "Video captures bombs exploding in Syrian city of Daraya."
The description read that the "local activists in the Syrian city of Daraya posted dramatic footage of an Oct. 28 airstrike carried out by a regime helicopter, showing bombs exploding meters from a videographer."
The courtesy of the video was given as, 'YouTube/Darya Revolution.'
The video was published on 29 October 2015.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
VIDEO 4
The fourth video can be seen from 1:13-1:46 minutes.
A Yandex reverse image search result led us to an article in a Russian website 'Soldat.Pro'.
The title read that Serbia has denied any involvement in the downing of a Bulgarian fighter jet. The article carried a video which carried this particular visual.
The video on a verified YouTube channel named 'Tango Six' was published on 13 June 2019 and has 34 million views. The video can be seen from 0:13-0:45 seconds.
The video title read, 'Rare close-up access: Air defence rocket launch exercise', and the video courtesy was given to Serbian Ministry of Defence.
Screengrab from 'Tango Six' video.
(Source: Tango Six/Youtube/Screenshot)
VIDEO 5
The video can be seen from 1:47-2:55 minutes.
A Yandex reverse image search result led us to a video on YouTube on a channel named 'Compared Comparison'.
The simulation video is titled 'ArmA 3 - A-10 Warthog vs Anti-Air Tank - Missiles and Tracers firing - GAU-8 Avenger - Simulation', and was posted on 1 January 2021.
The viral video clip can be seen from 0:23 seconds-1:30 minutes.
Screengrab from the simulation video.
(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)
Notably, this video clip has been used earlier, even by several news channels, falsely claiming 'Pakistan air force attacking in Panjishir Valley', as well as in 2020 as 'Armenia shot down an Azerbaijani MiG-25 in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region', and also during the Israel-Palestine war.
VIDEO 6
This video can be seen from 2:56-3:23 minutes.
A reverse image search on Yandex led us to a YouTube video on 'Yerkir-Media News', an Armernian news channel, published on 20 February 2016.
The title in Armenian translated to, 'The Russian side has published the list of weapons to be provided to Armenia under the loan agreement.'
The viral part can be seen from 1:06-1:11 minutes.
The video was posted on 20 February 2016.
(Source: Yerkir-Media News/Screenshot)
Though we couldn't find the extended version of the clip, it is clearly a video from 2016, and is not related to the war.
ALTHOUGH VISUALS UNRELATED, DEATHS MOUNT AMID UKRAINE CRISIS
It must be noted that although these visuals don't pertain to the ongoing war, huge loss of lives and property have been reported.
In the war that entered the 21st day on 17 March, the Russian military has lost more than 7,000 soldiers, according to United States officials, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said that around 1,300 Ukrainian troops had been killed since the Russian invasion on 24 February.
Evidently, none of the video clips are related to the Ukraine-Russia war and they are being shared with the false claim.
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