Video from the Russia-Ukraine war falsely attributed to Israel-Hezbollah attacks. Here’s the reality

The detonation of thousands of Pagers and walkie-talkies has set off a series of escalations leading to the deadliest day of Israeli airstrikes against Lebanon. Heavy damage and the loss of human lives have been reported amid these attacks. Undoubtedly, all of these sudden incidents have triggered the trend of misinformation on the Internet. In the midst of this, the video showing a drone hitting an industrial area in an urban city is going viral on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) with the claim that Hezbollah drones reached the oil refineries in the north of occupied Palestine.

An account with the username @therealMANSKY posted this video and wrote: “Hezbollah drones reached the oil refineries in the north of occupied Palestine”

In addition, other users also shared this video and made similar claims. The link can viewed here, here, and here.

Fact-Check

To check the veracity of the viral video, the DFRAC team converted it into keyframes and reverse-searched them on Google. We found the same video on the YouTube account of VOA (Voice of America). It was uploaded two months back with the caption: “Russian officials say Ukrainian drone attack damages oil refinery.

Furthermore, we came across a July 2024 Reuters report carrying the same video with the headline: “Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery damaged in Ukraine drone attack, Russian officials say”. The report stated that Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery, its biggest on the Black Sea, was damaged in a major Ukrainian drone attack overnight which sparked a fire, Russian officials said. Debris from the drone, which was shot down, caused a fire at the refinery, which is owned by oil major Rosneft, the officials said. The fire has since been contained, the regional administration said on the Telegram messaging app

Moreover, TRT World also reported this incident two months ago citing similar facts.

Conclusion

DFRAC’s fact-check proves that the viral video has been misleadingly associated with Israel-Hezbollah attacks. Originally, the video is from July 2024 and belongs to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Analysis: Misleading