The video is not real, but it is a 3D animation and it was shared on Instagram in October 2021, four months before the Russian invasion. The author of the video has over 90 thousand subscribers on YouTube and told foreign reviewers that it is not a video from Ukraine, but an animation he made himself, writes Truthmeter.mk.
Under the syndicating agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we republish the text below:
We are reviewing a video that was placed in the world media, including in North Macedonia and refers to the fighting in Ukraine after the Russian invasion. The video was posted and downloaded from the social network “Tik-Tok”, and it shows an alleged Russian airstrike in Ukraine.
In the reports in some Macedonian media (you can see an example at the following link) state that “the skies over Ukraine are literally filled with Russian planes flying in all directions, while Ukrainian anti-aircraft weapons are trying to bring them down.” This information dates back to February 24, 2022, i.e. the day the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
However, the video is not real, it is a 3D animation and it was shared on Instagram in October 2021, four months before the Russian invasion.
The author mentions that he is a 3D animator, and the video with the title in Spanish was published on his YouTube channel on October 29, 2021. The headline reads: “You wanted to know what it was like to be in World War II? This is for you! ”
The description of the video reads:
This is a small compilation of my World War II animations. I will try to take the animations away from air combat. I want to create a Tiger 1 battle against Sherman M4. Lots of hugs, if you like it, subscribe!
This 3D animator has over 90 thousand YouTube subscribers. The video shows that he has also created other 3D animations of military actions.
Foreign fact-checkers contacted the owner of the YouTube channel and received an answer:
This is just an animation I created. This is not a video about Ukraine.
If you look closely at the video, you can see that the planes that are shown in the sky and misrepresented as Russian planes in Ukraine are not moving, they are just floating in place. That in itself is indicative.
Given all of the above, we assess that the shared video material is not a real footage of a Russian air strike on Ukraine, but a 3D animation published months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
