Amid escalating tensions at the Russia-Ukraine border, a video showing an on-ground weapon system attacking and shooting down a fighter plane has gone viral as "live visuals of war".
However, we found that the viral clip was a video game simulation from a game called ARMA 3. Part of the clip, which has been on the internet since at least 2019, was superimposed on a "breaking news" banner in the viral posts.
Similar visuals have been used in the past to spread misinformation during the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict in 2020 and even linked to the Taliban takeover of Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan.
CLAIM
Facebook users shared the viral video with a caption that read, "Russia vs Ukraine war Conflict Live News, Ukraine Crisis News (sic)."
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)
The same viral video was shared by several Facebook users, archives of which can be found here and here.
Some people live streamed the viral video on their Facebook pages with captions suggesting that it was related to the 'US-Russia conflict', but it must be noted that in most cases the status stated 'Playing Arma 3 in Russia'.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The Quint's WebQoof team had earlier done a fact-check on this video and had found that the the video was of a game simulation called ARMA 3.
We had found a video game simulation uploaded on YouTube channel called 'Compared Comparison' on 1 January 2021, more than a year before the current Russia-Ukraine crisis.
On comparing the frames of the viral video with the simulated video, we found they were the same.
Comparison of the viral video with ARMA 3 simulation.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
Parts of another video from the same channel were also used in the viral video and by people live streaming.
As mentioned earlier, the same video was shared during the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict in 2020 and the clash in Panjshir Valley in Afghanistan between rebels and Taliban fighters.
Evidently, despite the fact-checks, this video game footage has repeatedly been linked it to real situations.
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