Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a military operation in Ukraine to defend separatists in the east of the country, called the Donbas region.
In the above context, a video of an explosion is widely being shared on social media with a hint that the viral video shows Russia attacking Ukraine. The video is being shared with a caption that reads, “Moment an explosion at an Ukrainian arms depot sent Russian rockets flying over the town of Kalinovka in Ukraine’s Vinnitsa region.”
The link to the post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile did a fact-check and found the claim to be misleading.
On doing a Google Reverse Image Search with one of the screenshots, we found the same video uploaded by a YouTube channel on June 5, 2018. The video was shared with a title that read, “The Town that Blew Up | Balakliia, Ukraine.”
We also found that the website Defense World had also shared a screenshot of the viral video on November 13, 2018. The image was shared with a caption that read, “Explosions in military warehouse in Balakliya, Ukraine in 2017 (Image: Youtube).”
The same video was also uploaded by a news website, Gozmodo on September 28, 2017. The video was shared with a title that read, “Thousands Evacuated After Massive Explosion Rocks Ukrainian Ammunition Depot.” The report suggested that a large fire at an ammunition depot in central Ukraine had triggered a series of massive explosions, prompting the evacuation of about 30,000 people.
Hence an old video showing explosion at a Ukrainian Ammunition Depot is being widely shared on social media with a misleading claim that it shows visuals of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
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