The claim: A video shows families fleeing a battle
A week into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, news outlets worldwide have published footage of refugees fleeing the tide of war. The number of Ukrainian refugees exceeded 1.2 million as of March 3, according to the United Nations.
On social media, false and misleading depictions of the crisis have spread alongside fact-based news coverage.
A Feb. 24 Facebook video shows a group of families hurrying to run behind troop lines. A crowd of mostly women and children duck their heads as an explosion flings debris in the background.
“It’s not a joke anymore,” the post's caption reads.
The post doesn't specifically mention Ukraine, although it was published the same day Russia invaded the country. Comments on the post suggest some Facebook users believe the footage shows the conflict.
"Lord protect everyone. This is sad," one commenter wrote.
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The video accumulated more than 723,000 views in just over a week. But the video does not show the Russian invasion.
The clip shows a scene from a 2021 World War II reenactment in Russia. In response to an inquiry from USA TODAY, Zostar, the post's author, said the video "has nothing to with Russia and Ukraine."
"This video has nothing to do with war," he wrote in a Facebook message.
Video from 2021 war reenactment
The people in the video are participants in a May 2021 commemoration of the 79th anniversary of the Lyuban offensive, a World War II battle.
A geotag pictured in the clip shows the event occurred in Tesovo-Netylsky, a small town in western Russia, according to a Google translation. TASS, a Russian state-owned news agency, reported around 400 people participated in the event. Similar reenactments have occurred annually since 2013.
The event reenacted the advancement of Soviet troops on German lines in 1942, according to TASS.
Fact check:What's true and what's false about the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Videos ofthe reenactment on YouTube show audience members holding out their phones to capture the staged explosions, charges and blank rounds. The attire and military technology that appear in the video also suggest the battle isn't real.
Petri Mäkelä, a military blogger with expertise identifying Russian military vehicles, told USA TODAY in an email that the tank in the video is a BT-7 tank. Germany destroyed most of the Soviet army's BT-7 tanks during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, he said, and most of the surviving tanks were decommissioned after the end of the war.
Our rating: Missing context
Based on our research, we rate MISSING CONTEXT the claim that a video shows families fleeing a battle. The clip shows a 2021 Russian reenactment of a World War II battle. The video is unrelated to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Our fact-check sources:
Google Translate, accessed March 1
Google Translate, accessed March 1
Google Translate, accessed March 1
Google Translate, accessed March 1
Just Drove via YouTube, May 22, 2021, Forgotten Feat – Second Shock Army
Ludmila Razvodova via YouTube, June 2, 2021, Military historical reconstruction. Forgotten Feat – Second Shock Army 1st of 2 parts
Petri Mäkelä, March 1, Email exchange with USA TODAY
TASS, May 22, 2021, Military-historical festival ‘Forgotten feat’ was held near Novogorod
United Nations Refugee Agency, accessed March 4, Operational Data Portal: Ukraine Refugee Situation
Tank-hunter.com, accessed March 1, The BT-7 m1935 Light Tank
USA TODAY, March 4, Russia seizes site of Ukrainian nuclear plant fire; Putin outlaws spread of 'fake' news against government: Live updates
USA TODAY, Feb. 28, Fact check roundup: What's true and what's false about the Russian invasion of Ukraine
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Russian invasion not pictured in WWII reenactment video
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