On March 27, a post was shared on Facebook about Mariupol and the way in which Russian troops would have taken what is one of the cities most affected by the war in Ukraine. In addition to the description, in the video uploaded to the social network, several soldiers can be seen escorting dozens of civilians in the middle of a highway, presumably after the surrender in Mariupol.

The claim is, to begin with, false, since the city has not been in Russian hands for almost two months. On the contrary. Mariupol was one of the most difficult places for Vladimir Putin’s troops, as around 2,000 people spent weeks at the Azovstal steelworks, a factory built by the Soviet Union which, due to the sophistication of the facilities (which include tunnels and passageways secrets) offers strong security for Ukrainian fighters.

The factory became the last point of resistance against the invaders. For several weeks, the Russians tried to conquer the place, and the fighters of the Azov battalion guaranteed that they would fight “fighting to the end”. But on May 16, by order from above, the soldiers who were in Azovstal began to surrender and all the civilians who were there were evacuated.

The fighters belonging to the Azov regiment were detained as prisoners of war and sent to the self-proclaimed Russian-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic, where they will be tried in a court in that region. More than that, the Russian Supreme Court will decide whether or not the Azov Battalion will be categorized as a terrorist organization, which could change the course of the trial of these soldiers.

Taking into account the chronology of events, it is possible to confirm that the statement made on Facebook two months ago is false, since it was only after May 16 that the Ukrainian troops surrendered in Azovstal and only after that the city remained in Russian hands.

Also, in a search of the footage from the video, it is possible to see that the moment was, in fact, captured on August 8, 2014 (and posted the following day). What is at stake, according to the Italian newspaper La República, is a “march of captured Ukrainian soldiers through the streets of Donetsk” – the caption of the original video refers to “Donetsk”, with the date of collection of the images, and with the reference to a “parade of captured squatters”.

The “occupiers” will be Ukrainian nationalist fighters fighting pro-Russian forces in the city of Donetsk. During the video shouts of “fascists” and “go out to the street who want to lynch the Russians” are heard and people can be seen with their hands tied behind their backs, allegedly prisoners captured by Russian forces.

conclusion

It is not true that the Russians took control of Mariupol at the end of March. The publication in question suggests that Vladimir Putin’s troops escorted the Ukrainians after taking the martyr city of the war in Ukraine, but there is no correspondence with the truth, given that the Ukrainians left the Azovstal factory only in May and not in the month of March. , which reflects that the images in question have no correspondence with the caption, especially since they were recorded in 2014, as the link above proves.

Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:

WRONG

In the Facebook classification system this content is:

FAKE: the main content claims are factually inaccurate. In general, this option matches “false” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checking websites.

NOTE: This content was curated by The Observer as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.