A viral post claims the footage shows war being staged in Ukraine. It is completely false.
On April 4, a Facebook page posted a post sharing images that allegedly show reenactments of Kiev forces during the Ukraine-Russia war, which began in February 2022. “Staged video filming of the actions of the Ukrainian Nazis to maintain morale in the ranks of the Armed Forces of that country”, it is written. This is, however, a false statement.
The viral post alleges that there were videos of Ukrainian soldiers during the war, as evidenced by a viral post. It’s false.
In the video, in addition to alleged Ukrainian soldiers, a long microphone is also seen, which indicates that we may be dealing with images of fictitious content, including explosions, and not of a real event. In fact, and consulting several articles and fact-checks that verified this same publication in other languages, it is clear that we are looking at images of a short film called “Hope.” That is to say, it is a staging, in fact, but not carried out by the military under the orders of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The elements visible in the images are actors, not members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and are not simulating combat to “maintain morale in the ranks.”
It is also important to say that this video was not reported by the Ukrainian or Russian press, but by Lithuanian newspapers, since the filming took place in that eastern European country. The screenwriter of this film, Artem Kocharian, referred to some foreign media that the images are part of a scene in which the protagonist’s husband dies. They were captured in March of this year. Kocharian also assured that it is not a documentary, but a short fiction film. There is also another report from the Lithuanian newspaper LSM, where a reporter is seen visiting the shooting location of this short film.
Conclusion
It is not true that the images shown by a viral publication show a staging, by the Ukrainian military, of the war within its own territory. These images are actually from a movie, but from Latvia. It is a fiction and not a documentary and it is not related to the propaganda actions of the government headed by Volodymyr Zelensky.
Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:
MISTAKEN
In the Facebook rating system this content is:
FAKE: Main content claims are factually inaccurate. This option generally corresponds to “fake” or “mostly fake” ratings on fact check sites.
NOTE: This content was curated by The Observer as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.
Source: Observadora
