Fake news about what is happening in Ukraine

We have collected cases when Internet users misunderstood what was happening in the video, used old photos and videos under the guise of current ones, or when the parties to the conflict said exactly the opposite things.

Tank crushed car

Video of a tank crushing a civilian car on a Kyiv street in the morning reposted on social networks, including Tikhanovskaya’s adviser Franak Vyachorka and Scottish MP Stuart MacDonald. It is noticeable in the video that when the car approaches, the tank sharply turns towards it and crushes the car. Initially, they wrote on social networks that it was a Russian tank, and the attack looked like an unmotivated act of aggression against civilians.

The armored vehicle in the frame is apparently not quite a tank, but an anti-aircraft missile system "Strela-10". This is the same incident in Obolon, a residential area of ​​Kyiv, filmed and from others angles. And they show that this is part of a battle on a city street. Conflict Intelligence Team dismantled these videos. According to their findings, the Russian military changed into Ukrainian uniforms and drove towards Kyiv using their equipment. In particular, the Russian Ural-4320 is visible. The soldiers jump out of it, there is a shootout, they die. “These are the ones who changed clothes,” They say over bodies in Ukrainian military uniform.

On the same day, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar reported on his Facebook that Russians tried to break into the center of Kyiv under the guise of Ukrainian soldiers, followed by a convoy of trucks. However, they were stopped. During this shootout, Strela-10 runs into a civilian car.

Conflict Intelligence Team suggests that the military lost control after speeding up on a paved street. In any case, it is clear that the collision happened in a combat situation, under fire, and not just the crew of the armored vehicle decided to kill a civilian. By the way, judging by others video, the civilian driver survived: local residents pulled him out of the crushed car alive. And the next day, February 26, information appeared from the Ukrainian side that there was no changing into someone else’s uniform at all. And the civilian car was run over by their own Ukrainians.

“The information about the movement of the enemy AWG in Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles around Kyiv is not true. The crew has been identified – all of us,” reported press secretary of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada Yulia Paliychuk. This is Zelensky's party.

Taken out of context

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"They're shooting at houses"

This video went viral on the first day of the war. The video was filmed from a window and shows military helicopters. Videos in particular distributed Mikhail Khodorkovsky with the caption “they are shooting at houses.” This phrase is said in a crying voice by a child behind the scenes of the video, having seen bright sparks flying from helicopters flying over residential buildings.

The child did not understand that the video showed not shells, but heat traps. Their military aircraft are deployed to "deceive" enemy missiles. In other accounts publishing videos, it accompany explaining that these are traps, not projectiles. Heat traps for airplanes and helicopters shoot even during demonstration performances at parades and air shows, when thousands of people watch the performance from the ground.

However, although this video does not show the Russian military attacking Ukrainian residential areas, there is other evidence of such attacks. Amnesty International accused Russia is that civilians are killed as a result of its attacks and that Russian claims about precision weapons that only hit military infrastructure are not true.

Taken out of context

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Russian flag on the administration building

Photos of people using a ladder to hoist the Russian flag onto a building on social networks accompany with the caption “The Russian flag was raised in Kharkov.”

In fact, a reverse image search shows that this photo appeared in the media back in March 2014. Then “polite people” began to appear in Crimea in uniforms without identification marks, who, as later admitted Putin himself were Russian military personnel. And in Kharkov, as in other cities in eastern Ukraine, that spring they actually erected a Russian tricolor to the regional administration building. This or very similar photos from the same angle accompanied this news was in 2014.

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The defenders of Zmeiny Island died

On the second day of the Russian invasion, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov reported82 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in the area of ​​Zmeiny Island. Journalists of the Russian The Insider were surprised the wording “In the area of ​​Zmeiny Island”: the island is located in the Black Sea, between Ukraine and Romania.

At the same time, a video went viral in the media and social networks: a Russian warship, via audio communication, offers Ukrainian border guards to surrender, threatening a group bombing strike. “Russian warship, go to ***,” - answer Ukrainians. There is also a video that filmed border guards as a Russian ship approaches.

Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported, that the entire garrison on Zmein consisted of 13 people and all of them died as a result of a rocket and artillery strike. President Zelensky promisedthat they will all posthumously receive the title of Hero of Ukraine. At the same time, the Russian side continues talk about the fate of 82 soldiers who allegedly surrendered “in the Zmeinoye area”: on February 26, it was reported that they were brought to Sevastopol and provided with food rations.

Update 02/28/2022: new information has appeared about the fate of the Ukrainian border guards from Zmeiny Island. Ukrainian side admittedthat the military are alive, they are in Russian captivity. “We are very happy to know that our brothers are alive and well!” — reported on the Ukrainian Naval Forces Facebook page.

Not true

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False air raid 

Video, showing a flight of fighter jets flying, circulated on Twitter with the English-language caption: "It's about 7am here and this is what everyone is hearing right now... My heart is breaking."

BBC found out, that this is a video from 2020, capturing the flight of aircraft before the parade, overlaid with the sound of a siren warning of an air raid.

Fake

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Paratroopers over Kharkov 

Another video allegedly captured military landing near Kharkov. This is actually an old video - it's the first time appeared in the Russian segment of the Internet in 2016.

The author of the video—his name on Twitter is Vasily Belov—he himself noticed that his video was being distributed on social networks with a fake caption. “I see a video from my tweet in 2016, the landing of the Airborne Forces near Rostov, in many foreign public pages, even on our resources, they are passing it off as Kharkov now,” - wrote he accompanied the text with a facepalm emoji. 

Taken out of context

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Unexploded shells or steps missiles?

On February 25, photos from Kharkov with something similar to shells began to appear on the Internet: they stuck in asphalt and even flew in to someone's apartment. “The shell did not explode,” Internet users captioned the photo.

But military experts suggest that this is not the projectile itself, but a stage that the rocket throws off during flight. For example, experts say Conflict Intelligence Team: they identified the strange objects as parts of the Smerch missiles that Russia has in service. Bellingcat founder Elliot Higgins also named objects in photographs are “rocket engines”. “They typically involve the use of cluster munitions, raising concerns about Russian use of cluster munitions in civilian areas,” he wrote.

Most likely not true

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Cover photo: Ratynsky Vyacheslav / UNIAN

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