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| - Fact Check: This video DOESN'T show Russia testing vacuum bombs amid ongoing invasion of Ukraine
AFWA's investigation found that the video has been on the internet since as early as December 2019. At that time, it was claimed to be from Syria.
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India Today Fact Check
This video has been on the internet since as early as December 2019. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, countless videos and images unrelated to the war have circulated online. Adding to this list is the dramatic video of a bomb blast recently tweeted by a verified Twitter account that goes by the name “Terror Alarm”. As per the tweet, the video shows Russia testing ODAB-500 vacuum bombs. Several other social media accounts also claimed that the video is from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
AFWA’s investigation, however, found that the video has been on the internet since as early as December 2019. At that time, it was claimed to be from Syria.
AFWA Probe
Thermobaric weapons or vacuum bombs are controversial because they are far more powerful than most conventional weapons of similar size and have a terrible impact on anyone caught in their blast radius. The Ukrainian government and human rights groups have reportedly accused Russia of using thermobaric weapons in Ukraine.
However, to confirm whether the viral video is related to the Russia-Ukraine war, we reverse-searched its keyframes. This led us to the same video uploaded to a YouTube channel on December 12, 2019. As per this channel, the video showed the use of ODAB-500 vacuum bombs in Syria.
In the initial months of 2020, the same video was shared by multiple people on Facebook, who also claimed the video to be from the civil war in Syria.
Paste: https://fb.watch/hZ9WEvOnxo/
We also found multiple media reports about the use of Russian-made thermobaric weapons in Syria’s civil war. According to a report published by British charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) in 2013, the thermobaric weapon is one of the 12 deadliest conventional weapons used in the Syrian war.
This video was earlier fact-checked by BBC in 2022. We couldn’t ascertain the exact location of the viral video. However, it is clearly old and has been on the internet since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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