Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
As the world is left stunned with the ongoing Russian attack of Ukraine, social media is seeing a concoction of unrelated videos, gaming footage and CGI animation, mixed with genuine content, making it difficult for online users to tell apart fake videos from the real ones. One such video, that was shared during the initial hours of the breakout of the war, showed a quiet residential complex during the dark hours, being lit up by flashes of bright light and deafening sound. Posts accompanying the video claim that it shows Russian forces bombing the Southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Newschecker has found this claim to be false.
Among the many users who shared the video claiming it to show Russian attack of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was @ImamOfPeace, a popular figure in the Muslim world, with a follower count of 811.6K.
Others including senior journalists and several media houses from across the world also carried the same footage claiming to show the Russian attack in the wee hours of the morning, including India’s Prasar Bharati.
Fact check/Verification
To check the veracity of the claim, Newschecker analysed the video and found that the loud deafening boom was eerily similar to a thunder strike. We scanned through the comment section of one of the posts and found a user pointing out that the video did not show the Russian invasion in Ukraine, but instead it showed a thunderstorm.
Also read: Video Of Libyan Rebels Shooting Down Plane From 2011 Shared In Context Of Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Using this as a clue, we split the video into keyframes and conducted a reverse image search online, with the key words “lightning” and “thunderstorm”. We soon found a tweet that shared the link of a TikTok video, claiming that ‘This video was posted weeks ago on Tiktok and is NOT showing a military attack’. The user also shared a link to the TikTok video.
On verifying the content of the attached link, we found that it was indeed published on the January 29, by a user called @kiryshkkanew, with the caption in Russian that translates to ‘Lightning strike in the powerplant’.
Also Read: Old Video From China Passed Off As Explosions In Ukraine After Russian Air Strikes
Conclusion
The video claiming to show the Russian attack on the city of Mariupol is actually a lightning strike that took place earlier in January.
Result: False Context/False
Also Read: Gaming Footage Shared As Video Of ‘Russia Vs Ukraine MiG-29 vs C- Ram Fight’
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Authors
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
