Authors
An Electronics & Communication engineer by training, Arjun switched to journalism to follow his passion. After completing a diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute, he has been debunking mis/disinformation for over three years. His areas of interest are politics and social media. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with the India Today Fact Check team.
In the backdrop of the ongoing tension between Russia and Ukraine, a video is doing the rounds on social media showing a blazing red streak shooting through the night sky, followed by a powerful explosion. The video is being shared with the claim that it shows the Russian army attacking Ukraine’s capital Kiev with a cruise missile.
Archive of the tweet can be seen here.
Archive of the tweet can be seen here.
The video is viral on Twitter. Some users have also shared it on Facebook. One of the users who shared it on Twitter wrote “A cruise missile fired by the Russian army fell on Kiev #Ukraine”
After weeks of growing tension and speculations, Russia has sent its troops into its neighbour Ukraine on Thursday. Reportedly, Ukraine is currently facing missile attacks by Russian forces as explosions were heard in different parts of the country. Missiles have been fired on the Ukrainian capital Kiev as well. Adviser to Ukraine’s president claimed that over 40 Ukrainian soldiers and 10 civilians have lost their lives so far. However, Ukraine’s military said that about 50 Russian troops have also been killed so far.
Fact Check/Verification
Upon conducting a reverse image search of the key frames in the video, we found an article on a Turkish social website ‘Onedio’ featuring the same viral video. The article, published on January 13, 2022, revealed that the video was captured when rocket attacks were carried out on the US embassy in Iraq’s capital Baghdad.
As per the report, the rockets targeted the Green Zone of Baghdad where government and foreign offices were located. However, some strikes were neutralised by C-RAM, an air defence system of the US.
VnExpress, a Vietnamese online newspaper, also reported the same. Apart from this, we found that some journalists had also tweeted this and a similar video of these attacks from their verified handles.
During the same time, many videos of the rocket attacks and retaliation from the US defence system were captured.
These four rocket strikes in Baghdad injured three people including two children. The attacks were carried out by Iranian-backed militias, as claimed by the US.
Therefore it can be concluded that a video from Iraq, which is over a month old, has been linked to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Conclusion
A video showing a rocket attack on the US Embassy in Iraq’s Baghdad, which is over a month old, is being shared in the context of the current Russia-Ukraine conflict to claim Russian missile attack in Kiev.
Result: False context/False
Sources
News reports of Onedio and VN Express
Tweets of journalists like Rifad Jaboori and Steven Nabil
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Authors
An Electronics & Communication engineer by training, Arjun switched to journalism to follow his passion. After completing a diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the India Today Media Institute, he has been debunking mis/disinformation for over three years. His areas of interest are politics and social media. Before joining Newschecker, he was working with the India Today Fact Check team.
