In mid-October 2023, a video allegedly published by the BBC went viral on social networks, claiming that the Bellingcat investigative project had uncovered Ukrainian arms supplies to Hamas militants. We have verified the accuracy of this video.
For example, on October 11, in the Telegram channel of Channel One host Ruslan Ostashko (110,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) appeared such a post (the author’s spelling and punctuation are preserved): “The failure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ counter-offensive and the Hamas attack on Israel are connected - the pro-Ukrainian trash heap Billingcat brought “zrada” to the Kyiv regime. The British media BBC, citing analysts from Billingcat, reports that the total level of corruption in Ukraine has led to an escalation in the Middle East. In particular, the name of ex-Minister of Defense of Ukraine Reznikov, who was actively involved in the resale of NATO weapons to Hamas militants, is called out. Western journalists gained access to classified information confirming that it was the Kiev regime that handed over a large number of weapons used in the attack on Israel. The purchases of drones, machine guns, and ammunition were made directly through the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.”
Similar publications were also published in other channels: “Russia now"(294,000 views), "Truthfulness"(229,000), "Notes from a veteran"(162,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(124,000), "Kot Kostyan - official channel"(112,000), "Work, brothers!" (37,000), "Russian engineer" (35,000) and "Denazification UA"(22,000). Similar posts about the alleged BBC video with the Bellingcat investigation* can be found on the social network X (formerly Twitter; examples here, here And here), in public pages on VKontakte (here, here And here), as well as on some news resources, including the website of the TV channel “Belarus 1"
Alexey Reznikov for real left resigned from the post of Minister of Defense of Ukraine amid several corruption scandals, including accusations of procurement winter clothes, ammunition and medicine, and also food at inflated prices. At the same time, foreign media reportedthat Reznikov himself wasn't directly involved in illicit enrichment, but defended their subordinates. After the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Ukraine condemned the actions of the militants. President Vladimir Zelensky expressed Condolences to the relatives of the victims.
As for the viral video, it allegedly represents a video from BBC News, as indicated by the logo of the British publication. Below is the translation.
Bellingcat: The failure of the Ukrainian offensive and the Hamas attack are connected.
Investigative journalists at Bellingcat have concluded that the failure of Ukraine's summer counteroffensive and the Hamas attack on Israel are linked. An analysis of classified data showed that Ukraine supplied most of the weapons used by the Palestinian Hamas movement. Palestinians acquired firearms, ammunition, drones and other weapons through corruption schemes organized by representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. We are talking about the sale of NATO weapons to terrorists. The resignation of the Prime Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexei Reznikov is an attempt by the Ukrainian side to hide corruption crimes. NATO allies, by arming Ukraine, not only failed to liberate Ukrainian territories, but also unwittingly provoked an escalation in the Middle East. The reason is the appalling level of corruption in Ukraine. If this is investigated at the highest level, the United States will have a formal reason to leave the alliance. Professor Nassim Taleb has already mentioned a potential US withdrawal from NATO (“Verified” earlier found outthat the writer did not say such a thing. — Approx. ed.).
There is no such video website, nor on YouTube-channel, not on social networks (X, Facebook**, Instagram**) BBC News. “Verified” studied many BBC videos and came to the conclusion that the viral recording is not similar to those of the British Broadcasting Corporation released at least for the last few months, but in style it is more reminiscent old publications. Even if we assume that the BBC decided to return to the previous design of the videos, the font on the viral video is different from what the publication used previously. The differences are especially noticeable in the letters a, e, k and g. In addition, in one sentence, Reznikov’s former position was called “Prime Minister of Defense” (at the 00:40 mark; Ukrainian Defense Prime Minister) and did not precede this phrase with the article the. At the end of the video, two different spellings of the USA are used (U.S. and US at the 1:00 and 1:09 marks, respectively) - such errors and oversights are very unusual for such a large media outlet.
It is noteworthy that in the video being distributed, militants of the radical Islamist movement Hamas were called terrorists. Despite the fact that in Israel, the USA, the EU, Japan and a number of other states this organization recognized terrorist, BBC consistently abstains from using this characteristic in relation to gang members. Responding to criticism of this position, journalists from the television and radio company noted that they do not use this term independently, unless it is included in quotes (note that they are not in the viral video). Correspondent John Simpson stated that "by calling someone a terrorist, you are taking sides."
A fact-checking journalist from BBC Verify announced on social networks that the alleged video of the British publication is a fake. Shayan Sardarizadeh and assistant editor for BBC Verify and BBC Monitoring Olga Robinson.
On social networks and website Bellingcat “Verified” also did not find any materials linking Ukraine to arms supplies to Hamas. On the contrary, in X- And Facebook- in the publication’s account we found refutations published on the evening of October 10. “We are aware of a fake BBC video circulating on social media that falsely claims that Bellingcat has confirmed the sale of Ukrainian weapons to Hamas. We have not reached such conclusions or made any such statements. We would like to emphasize that this is fraud and should be treated as such,” the posts read.
A little earlier in the day a fake commented Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins: “Russian social media users are spreading a fake BBC video claiming that a Bellingcat investigation shows Ukraine is smuggling weapons to Hamas. It is unclear whether this is a disinformation campaign run by the Russian government or a grassroots initiative, but it is 100% fake."
In his post, Higgins provided a link to the Sheikh Tamir Telegram channel, where a fabricated video published October 10 at 13:44 Moscow time. Fact checkers from the France 24 TV channel Les Observateurs project suggested that this channel is the original source of the viral video. However, “Verified” discovered that in the Telegram channel “Kot Kostyan - official channel” there is a fake posted more than an hour earlier - at 12:41. We were unable to find earlier publications. Markian Kuzmovich, who analyzes digital threats at Microsoft, initially also statedthat the video began to spread after the recording of “Sheikh Tamir”, but later added, that Kot Kostyan’s post came out earlier.
Creating videos that imitate the style of well-known and authoritative foreign media is one of the favorite strategies of fake authors. “Verified” has already written about fake videos allegedly from 20 Minutes, Al Jazeera, euronews, DGP, DW***, Reuters And Fox News.
Thus, neither the BBC nor Bellingcat reported on Ukraine's supply of weapons and ammunition to Hamas militants, and Internet users distributed another fake video.
Note: The fabricated video also shows a fragment of another viral video, which allegedly shows Ukrainian weapons transferred to Hamas militants. “Verified” will release a separate analysis about this later.
*Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation contributed Bellingcat to the register of foreign and international non-governmental organizations whose activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of Russia, as well as in list The media are foreign agents.
**Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Instagram and Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
***Russian authorities think Deutsche Welle as a media outlet acting as a foreign agent.
Cover photo: social networks
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