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| - Fact Check: This is not Russia preparing mass graves for its soldiers killed in Ukraine war
A video of long rows of dug graves is circulated on social media with the claim that it was prepared by the Russian government for their soldiers brought dead from Ukraine.
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India Today Fact Check
This is a 2021 video from Russia’s Surgut city. According to its Mayor, the graves were dug ahead of the 2021 winter. He said the practice is common in northern cities of Russia where winters are harsh.
More than 150,000 troops are deployed by Russia as part of its war efforts in Ukraine. As per the American intelligence estimates, the invasion army has already lost over 7,000 personnel since the start of the war.
Amid this revelation by the media, a video of long rows of dug graves is circulated on social media with the claim that it was prepared by the Russian government for their soldiers brought dead from Ukraine.
One such post on Facebook that received over 270K views until the time of filing this story can be seen below.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the claim along with the video is misleading. This video has been on the internet at least since 2021. According to Russian authorities, it showed a common practice in the northern cities of Russia where graves are dug ahead of the winter.
AFWA probe
We did a reverse search of the keyframes of the viral video and found the same video shared by Russian social media handles at least since October 2021. This confirmed that the video is old and not related to the Russia-Ukraine war that started in February 2022.
Some netizens who posted the video in 2021 also claimed that the video is from Russia’s Surgut.
https://t.co/phYBnevUZb — @MagyarMaidan (@MagyarMaidan) October 9, 2021
Using online tools Live Transcribe and Google Translator we translated the audio component of the video shared in 2021. According to the audio, the graves were prepared in a city cemetery in Surgut "ahead of the fourth wave of Covid-19."
However, we found some other responses to the video which stated that the winter in Surgut is harsh and hence the graves are dug in advance as a common practice.
We further checked the Instagram handle of Surgut Mayor Andrey Filatov and found the same video of mass graves in question posted by him on March 7, 2022.
In his clarification note, Filatov stated that the video was from 2021 and it showed graves being dug ahead of winter in Surgut. He added that such practices were common for at least a decade and a half in northern cities of Russia where winter is extreme.
The clarification was posted along with the clipping from an interview provided by him to a channel regarding the video.
The explanation provided by the Mayor in the Russian language was loosely translated as, “For several days now, a fake video has been circulating on the Internet claiming that the Surgut cemetery is being prepared to receive the soldiers who died during the special operation. I declare unequivocally that this information is false. The video is indeed from our cemetery, but the footage is from last year. We already commented on them in September 2021. At that time, the graves were being prepared for winter. This is a standard procedure for earthworks in northern cities. Due to the fact that we have rather low temperatures in winter, all work of this specific nature is carried out in advance. This has been practised for at least 15 years.”
Multiple Russian news portals have also published this clarification provided by the Mayor of Surgut. The reports also confirms that in winter the ground in this region freezes, making it difficult to dig graves.
It is hence clear that the video in question is old and not related to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
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