Russia-Ukraine conflict video falsely associated with Hezbollah attacks Israel. Here are the facts
The Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7 and has escalated in an ever-widening web of countries and militias, from Lebanon to Iran. The situation is becoming more severe gradually drawing the need for a ceasefire. Additionally, it has also added fuel to the misinformation in the digital landscape, Recently, a video showing a tank blown into pieces has gone viral on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Several users are sharing this video and claiming that it shows how Hezbollah destroyed the Markava Tank of Israel.
Posting this video on X, an account with the username @ZAIDIIQ wrote: “Targeting a Zionist Merkava by Hezbollah”
Moreover, several other users shared this video and made similar claims. The link can be seen here, here and here.
Fact-Check
The DFRAC team fact-checked the above viral video. A reverse-image search of the keyframes obtained from the viral video led us to the YouTube channels of The Telegraph and Daily Mail UK where we found the same video dated October 9, 2023. The video’s caption read: “Russian T-90 tank destroyed by Ukraine Anti-Tank Guided Missile near Makiivka”
As per video’s description, this video shows the moment a Russian T-90 tank is hit by a Ukrainian Anti-Tank Guided Missile. Ukraine’s General Oleg Syrski posted the clip from fighting near Makiivka. He claims that Ukraine’s 66th Brigade destroyed 25 Russian tanks in four days of fighting in the area. This footage was posted on 8 October.
Upon investigating further, we came across an article on Defence blog from Oct, 2023. The article featured a screengrab from the above viral video and stated that Russia reportedly lost another T-90M in Ukraine, its most advanced tank in service. The Ukrainian military released footage showing what it said were successful strikes against the most modern tanks in Russian service.
Conclusion
It is proved from DFRAC’s fact-check that the viral video has been misleadingly shared on X. The video dates back to Oct 2023 and shows how Ukraine’s Anti-Tank Guided Missile destroyed a Russian T-90 tank near Makiivka
