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In the days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a video circulated online along with the claim that it showed Russian civilians honoring their soldiers killed in the conflict. However, the statement is false. The video is a clipping from one posted in 2015, which he says shows Ukrainians paying their respects to soldiers who died fighting in the country’s eastern Donbas region in 2015.
“When the Russian soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the Ukraine conflict returned home, all civilians knelt to salute their heroes,” the red, simplified chinese text about him video read
was shared here on February 26, 2022 on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
White text overlaid on the video reads: “In Russia, they respect their soldiers, not celebrities.”
A screenshot of the misleading post, taken on April 21, 2022It circulated a few days after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The video was also shared on Facebook and elsewhere in douyin along with a similar claim.
However, an analysis of the video shows that, when one minute and two seconds mark and at the one minute and 48 seconds mark, the people on the roadside are holding the ukrainian flag.
A screenshot of the video in the hoax post with the Ukrainian flag circled in orange by AFP, taken on April 21, 2022Reverse keyword and image searches on Yandex led to a longer version of the video being posted on YouTube. here on April 16, 2015.
The caption in Russian reads: “This is how ‘the ukrops’ greet their heroes.” Ukrops is a colloquial word for pro-Ukrainians or Ukrainians.
The video’s description, which also contains a lot of jargon, reads: “Dead Ukrainian soldiers, near Donetsk airport (cyborgs) are welcomed into the motherland. Look, vata, compare it to your 200 stinking dead men coming home in garbage bags.” “. ..”
“cyborgswas the nickname given to the Ukrainian soldiers who defended Donetsk airport in Donbas against pro-Russian separatists. Vata is a derogatory nickname for Russians.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the hoax post (left) and the 2015 YouTube video (right).
A screenshot comparison of the video in the hoax post (left) and the 2015 YouTube video (right)An analysis of the YouTube video provides further evidence that the video was filmed in Ukraine, not Russia.
Words on a road sign, seen in the 35 seconds mark of the video, translate to “Stryi” Y “Drohobych” — two cities in the Lviv region in western Ukraine.
A screenshot, taken on April 21, 2022, of the YouTube video with the street sign circled in red by AFPAN black and red flag used by supporters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) can be seen in the one minute 49 seconds Frames.
The white car’s license plate in the video is also in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and matches the style of license plates used in the country, as seen in this specialized website.
A screenshot from the YouTube video, with the red and black flag in a circle and the car’s license plate enlarged by AFP, and a screenshot from worldlicenseplates.com of typical Ukrainian license plates.Russian car license plates include the letters “RUS” or a Russian flag, neither of which can be seen on the white car’s license plate.
A comparison of screenshots of the license plate on the YouTube video (left) and examples of Russian license plates from worldlicenseplates.com (right)A Polish fact-checking organization has also discredited claims about this video, which was shared elsewhere in the wrong context.
Similar videos of people in Ukraine lining the streets, waving flags and kneeling as vehicles carrying the bodies of soldiers pass were also posted on YouTube. here Y here in 2016.
AFP has debunked a wave of misinformation surrounding the conflict in Ukraine.
Reference-factcheck.afp.com