Misinformation about the ongoing crisis in Ukraine is rife, with media mainly from India and China circulating old photographs and videos claiming them to be from Ukraine.
Compiled by journalist Uzair Rizvi, dozens of videos and photos have been recirculated online and falsely described as footage of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which began on Thursday.
Indian news channels Times Now and NewsX shared an old video of a Russian air show, claiming it showed Russian warplanes over Ukraine.
Indian news channels falsely share an old video of an air show in Russia in 2020 claiming that it is related to the ongoing crisis in #Ukraine
Link to the original video https://t.co/LIi1KcVC1M pic.twitter.com/XoPgGwlDME
— Uzair Rizvi (@RizviUzair) February 24, 2022
Indian news channel Zee News erroneously shared a video claiming it showed paratroopers landing in Ukraine. The clip is actually from 2016 and has no relation to the ongoing crisis.
An Indian defence analyst, Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, also falsely claimed the video showed a “major Russian paratrooper landing near Kharkov.”
#FactCheck: India’s defence analyst shared this video claiming ‘Russian military paratroopers landing' in Ukraine; however it is an old clip online since 2016; it is not related to the current #UkraineRussiaCrisis
Link to the 2016 video: https://t.co/vOX4pmzkPm… pic.twitter.com/sPGISaTrsJ
— Uzair Rizvi (@RizviUzair) February 24, 2022
A Twitter account apparently from China shared a video filmed in Beirut in August 2020, claiming it showed a city in Ukraine presently under attack.
A video of a blast at a chemical warehouse in China, which has been falsely attributed before, this time was described as an explosion of a powerplant in Luhansk. The Agence France-Presse (AFP) issued a fact-check confirming the video was from Tianjin, China in 2015.
#FactCheck This is an old clip of a blast at a chemical warehouse in Tianjin, China in 2015.
It is not related to #UkraineCrisis
Link to the original video: https://t.co/C69jdlHBgS pic.twitter.com/FBwyN1JXyf
— Uzair Rizvi (@RizviUzair) February 24, 2022
Even video games have been misleadingly shared. A clip from the video game ‘Arma 3’ is circulating online under the hashtag #worldwar3, gaining 279,000 views in several hours.
#FactCheck Everytime there is a conflict; social media users misleadingly share clips from an online war game; Arma 3.
Once again; a clip from Arma 3 video game has been shared falsely claiming it is from #UkraineRussiaCrisis
279k views in just a few hours 😭 pic.twitter.com/Ob7RwsMMl2
— Uzair Rizvi (@RizviUzair) February 24, 2022
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an attack on Ukraine, which has now engulfed most of the country, within hours of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s arrival in Moscow on an official visit.
