A video purporting to show Ukrainian soldiers harassing a Russian-speaking mother with a child has spread widely in Russian Telegram channels this week.
However, with the help of details on the video, OSINT experts were able to reveal that it originates from Russian-controlled areas, and thus cannot possibly be genuine.
After it was documented that the video is fake, even pro-Russian military bloggers have published corrections. But from the Kremlin it is completely quiet, according to him Medusathe independent Russian newspaper that first featured the video.
Insults
The video, apparently filmed on a dashboard camera, shows a mother of a young child being stopped by what are presented as Ukrainian soldiers as she drives with her child.
The backdrop is presented to be that she has driven past a military convoy. The man portrayed as a Ukrainian soldier becomes increasingly rough in his tone and scolds her. A child’s cry is heard in the background.
– Speak the state language, you pig, the soldier roars in Ukrainian, and further scolds her for speaking Russian, which the alleged soldier refers to as “the language of pigs”.
At the end of the video, the alleged soldier fires a series of shots in front of the woman’s car, before getting back into his military vehicle.
– NATO must see the seriousness
Geolocated
OSINT specialists from GeoConfirmed have been able to locate where the video was recorded by comparing power poles, trees and bushes shown in the video with satellite images.
In this way, they have placed the scene of the video in Makijivka, within an area the Russians have controlled since 2014. The location where the video was filmed is 30 kilometers inside the front lines on the Russian side.
In the date line on the video it says 24 March 2023. Ukrainian soldiers cannot possibly have been at the scene on this date.
OSINT, an abbreviation for Open Source Intelligence, is intelligence using open sources such as satellite images. GeoConfirmed has on a number of occasions collaborated with the renowned excavation journalist network Bellingcat.
– Coming back as heroes
Admits
According to the independent Russian newspaper Meduza, the video was first spread in the Telegram channels of a number of pro-Putin war bloggers. Eventually, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also shared the video on Twitter, according to Medusa.
This has now been deleted, report newspaper.
From the Russian authorities it has been quiet, but now a number of the mentioned war-friendly war bloggers have now come out and announced that the video has been fabricated.
The channel Rybar, one of the biggest pro-Kremlin Russian Telegram channels, writes at the very bottom of its Telegram share a small note that the video turned out to be fake.
