Ukraine War

A documentary clip shared as soldier leaving for war amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Written by Md Mahfooz Alam

Amid the escalating conflict between Russia-Ukraine, a 15 second video clip is being circulated on social media platforms with the claim of it being posted by a Ukrainian soldier. In the video, two ladies are seen emotionally breaking down while embracing men clad in military gear.

Those sharing the video also claims it to be a farewell video of military families before the men in military gear depart for the war.

Facto News found the claim is misleading and the clip is from a documentary.

A Facebook page shared the video with the caption: “Here is the capital of Ukraine: scenes of anxiety, farewell, love”

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Tushar Kaushik, a journalist working with India News, posted the video on Twitter with the caption: “Feel the pain of war ! Video posted by saying a Ukrainian soldier with his family before leaving for war…”

(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)

Several other social media users have shared the video clip with the misleading claim. An archive of the same can be accessed here, here, and here.

FactO Check:

Using the InVID chrome extension, we fragmented the video and ran a reverse image search of the keyframes. On the Yandex search engine, we came across a website carrying a still similar to one of the keyframes. According to the website, the still is from a documentary called The War of Chimeras directed by Anastasia Starozhytska and her journalist mother Maria Starozhytska.

The documentary is a real-life story of the co-director Anastasia Starozhytska and her partner.  Her partner had volunteered to fight at the Ukrainian battle of Ilovaisk in 2014.

(Source: DOCUDAYSUA/Screenshot)

On further searching, we came across an interview of Anastasia Starozhytska on YouTube with the international broadcaster UATV in which she talks about the making of the documentary. At 1:58 minutes, the interview carries the trailer of the documentary which is similar to the visual of the viral clip.

 

For further clarification of readers, we have made a collage highlighting the similarities in the viral video and YouTube video of UATV.

Conclusion: 

Therefore, it is evident from the above findings that the viral video is not of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

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About the author

Md Mahfooz Alam

Mahfooz is a multimedia journalist and regularly writes fact-check stories for Facto News. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. He has worked as an intern fact-checker for The Quint. He specializes in research and fact-checking and aspires to do investigative reporting.

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