This downed military plane is not an IL-76
A video is circulating on Tik Tok allegedly showing a downed Russian Ilyushin Il-76 model plane. The recording comes to light after the statement made on Facebook by the Armed Forces of Ukraine: “Our Air Defense Forces shot down an IL-76 with an enemy landing near Vasilkov.”
Video broadcast on networks where an allegedly Russian plane shot down by Ukrainians appears VerifyRTVE
As can be seen in the video, a small plane appears shot down and on fire in an area with no houses or population around it. It is false that this aircraft is an IL-76. At VerificaRTVE we have carried out a search for images related to this model and we have verified that it is characterized by being a long-range, heavy transport aircraft that, unlike the one that appears in the recording, has a “T”-shaped tail. We have consulted two aviation experts, David Corral and Manuel Gómez, and they confirm that, indeed, it is not this model of military apparatus. For both specialists, the plane that appears in the video is an Antonov AN-26. The latter is characterized by being a much lighter twin-engine tactical transport aircraft.
This video of Ukrainian soldiers killed in Kiev is fake
An old video of dead Ukrainian soldiers VerifyRTVE
With a reverse search in Google and Yandex, we have verified that several of the images that make up the network video are published on this Russian website on December 2, 2014. The site indicates that they correspond to an attack in which several Ukrainian soldiers died in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The video images also appear on this Russian page on September 8, 2018. On YouTube you can see the full video released in April 2021.
So, the video does not show soldiers killed in “the outskirts of Kiev” and it has nothing to do with the war that began on February 24 in Ukraine on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s an old recording of the conflict in eastern Ukraine decontextualized to pass as current.
This photo of two children saying goodbye to some soldiers is old
Beware of an image that has been shared on social networks in the last few hours. In it we see two small children saying goodbye to some soldiers mounted on tanks in which the Ukrainian flag waves. We have found it accompanied by messages such as: “These images left by the war are worth more than a thousand words (sic)” or “The photo of the year”. it’s old. It has been in circulation for at least 6 years.
Twitter messages sharing an old image of children firing soldiers VerifyRTVE
Doing a reverse search of the photograph, we have verified that it appears in several articles. In some, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is cited as a source. Indeed, we have found the image published on March 22, 2016 on the Facebook page of said institution.
This father-daughter farewell in Ukraine is not caused by the arrival of the Russians
On the morning of the second day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (February 25), a video has been broadcast on social networks in which a young father is seen emotionally saying goodbye to a young girl. The text that accompanies the video says: “A father says goodbye to his daughter whom he saves from the invasion of #Russia, he stays to fight for #Ukraine.” It is not like this. The recording of the farewell is true, but it happened just on the opposite side five days before
A father hugs a girl, but it is not a video of Ukrainians saying goodbye before the arrival of the Russians. VerifyRTVE
This image of a bloodied girl is not Ukraine, it’s Syria
An image is being distributed through social networks that is attributed to a Ukrainian girl. Expressions such as: “These innocents who are not to blame” or “massacre Ukrainian children” are used. The little girl is crying with traces of blood on her face.
Syrian girl – photo falsely attributed to Ukraine VerifyRTVE
We have verified that the image is of the conflict in Syria and has nothing to do with the one in Ukraine. A reverse search shows that It was already published in 2018. The BBC attributes it to the EPA agency.
These tunnels are not from the Ukraine, but from the Los Angeles Metro
Various messages have been spreading on social networks like Twitter and Telegram for weeks claiming that Ukraine has a system of tunnels through which “drugs, weapons, children, people and adrenochrome are transported” (a chemical compound to which the QAnon conspiracy group, which we have told you about in VerificaRTVE, attributes psychedelic properties). They implicate Joe Biden’s son in these operations and include an image of the underground galleries where these actions allegedly take place.
Twitter messages where the false message of the alleged tunnels in Ukraine is spread VerifyRTVE
Through a reverse search, we have been able to verify that it is a old photograph and not belonging to Ukraine. It corresponds to a snapshot of some tunnels of the Los Angeles Metro system, which are not in operation. Writer Alissa Walker posted this image on May 10, 2012 to her Flickr account.
This video is not from the current crisis, it belongs to a video game
We have seen on Twitter a video showing some buildings at night. From these, artifacts appear to be missiles. The publication ensures that “it is not a movie or a video game” and that they belong to the current conflict in the case of a Russian attack on Ukraine.
Night view of what looks like explosions, but it’s a video game VerifyRTVE
The recording is fake. Actually, it is a video game. Specifically, from War Thunder (2012). You can see the scene in this YouTube video titled “The Iron Dome in War Thunder”.
The video of military planes in formation does not correspond to the Russian attack on Ukraine
Since the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (February 24), a video circulates of some planes in formation passing over some buildings. The text that accompanies the video says that they are Russian planes flying over Ukraine.
V-shaped aircraft flying over a city VerifyRTVE
It is not true, these are images taken from another YouTube video recorded in 2020 during the rehearsal of an air parade of the Russian air forces and that lasts 4 minutes more. The YouTube user who posted it then locates the footage in Tushino, a satellite town northwest of Moscow.
This video of Russian paratroopers descending on Ukraine is fake
In the first hours after the Russian attack on Ukraine (Thursday, February 24), a video has circulated on social networks in which dozens of paratroopers are seen descending on an open space supposedly in the Kharkiv (Jarkov) area. The user who has shared the video in one of the versions that has gone viral writes in the Vietnamese language.
Messages that spread the video where dozens of Russian paratroopers allegedly land in Kharkiv VerifyRTVE
In another video from 2014 we have found elements present in that recording, which allows us to affirm that it is not true that the images belong to the arrival of Russian paratroopers in Ukraine today. On YouTube there is a journalistic chronicle in Russian dated March 19, 2014. The information covers some maneuvers of 15,000 Russian paratroopers in the Rostov Oblast area. It is not the same camera but it is the same event. The image in which a plane and parachutists are seen is practically identical in one content and in another. They match camera angle and distance from the target, time of day, weather and relative distribution between the skydivers and the plane. At another point in the alleged video recorded today in Ukraine, a red and white tape can be seen, designed to delimit an area of prohibited passage, such as the one placed to separate the cameras from the action zone. This same tape also appears in the video of the military maneuvers.
It is equally revealing that among the many reports that have reached us from the Kharkov area there is none that mentions the presence of paratroopers and that Twitter has decided to delete the message from the Vietnamese user who shared the video in the first place. RTVE’s special envoy to Kiev Víctor García Guerro has mentioned in a chronicle another Russian operation with aerial troops, but this time carried out in the surroundings of Kiev, as CNN also reports https://edition.cnn.com/ videos/world/2022/02/24/russian-troops-ukraine-kyiv-region-airbase-chance-nr-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/russia-ukraine-military-conflict/. *
The message about the explosions at Boryspil airport is not current
A message broadcast in the early hours of Thursday, February 24, on a Spanish Telegram channel described as “Last hour” explosions at Boryspil airport (Ukraine). Attached a video where you can see a nocturnal urban landscape and a glow in the sky.
Video broadcast on Telegram allegedly showing an explosion at Boryspil airport VerifyRTVE
The video is not from today. Through a reverse image search we found the video in a TikTok post what attributes the glow to lightning. Based on analysis of its source code (shown in UNIX format and translated into UCT with epochconverter.com), the release is dated January 24, 2022.
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George Holan is chief editor at Plainsmen Post and has articles published in many notable publications in the last decade.
