Feb 24, 2023BY: Bechu SUKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR: DID YOU FALL FOR THESE HOAXES?
'FC Dynamo Kyiv' joining the front line
A photo taken on February 25, 2022 -- a day after the invasion began -- claimed to show the squad of Ukraine's iconic football club Dynamo Kyiv geared up to take on the Russian forces. In reality, it was the image of troopers belonging to a right-wing nationalist group called 'Gonor'.Credit: Twitter
'Arma 3' video game -- too good to be real
Pre-recorded footage from the popular video game 'Arma 3' were widely shared as real-life videos of the conflict. 'Arma 3' is a popular military simulator that let users control anti-aircraft defence systems and fire missiles at ground/water targets.Credit: Twitter
'Arma 3' video game -- too good to be real
YouTube streams from gaming channels were the main source of such fake videos, several reports showed.Credit: Twitter
Putin threatened India with 'consequences'...
A doctored screengrab of a CNN news show went viral with the claim that Vladimir Putin threatened India against getting involved in the crisis. However, this was proven wrong over the course of time. While declaring the invasion, Putin's warning was to the world in general and no country was named in particular.Credit: Twitter
The Nazis!
Old stock images from across European prisons were used to prove the presence of Neo-Nazi elements in the Ukrainian camp. These visuals of half-naked men with Swastika and other far-right symbols tattooed on their bodies were presented as that of Ukrainian POWs.Credit: AFP
US Army to Ukraine's help!
Old visuals of US military drills were abundantly used to claim that the US has started sending its troops to help Ukraine. However, they were all proven wrong over the course of time. Most of these visuals were taken from old military drills conducted by the US forces.Credit: Twitter
Nagorno-Karabakh is not in Ukraine
Brutal visuals of the 2020 Azeri-Armenian war over the control of the autonomous Nagorno-Karabakh region were widely shared as evidence of the poor show by Russian tanks in Ukraine. Most of these visuals showed ground units being easily eliminated in precision air strikes.Credit: AFP
The 'sinking' Russian Navy
Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, was lost in the ongoing conflict. Soon after the news broke, videos claiming to be of the Moskva's sinking surfaced. In reality, most of these viral clips showed old frigates being sunk as part of military drills by the defence units of various countries.Credit: Twitter
Visuals of the 2014 conflict
In 2014, Ukraine's Aidar Battalion was defeated by Russia-backed militia groups in Luhansk. Footage of fallen Ukrainian soldiers from this old battle was shared as that of casualties during the initial days of the invasion in February 2022.Credit: Twitter
Children of war
Heartbreaking images of hurt children from across the globe including Yemen, Syria and the West Bank were shared as the latest visuals from Kyiv following Russian rocket strikes. No doubt the children of Ukraine is suffering since the invasion began, but many images shared to portray their hardship by netizens were unrelated to the conflict, or old.Credit: Twitter