Times Now Shares Old Video as 'Russian Jets Shot by Ukraine'

The visuals could be traced back to May 2020.

As Russia launched a ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine on Thursday, 24 February, and reports about the Russian troops invading Ukraine, through land, air, and sea, are emerging, a video which shows planes flying over buildings was shared by English news channel Times Now, linking it to the ongoing escalation in tensions between the two countries.

Times Now shared the 40-second clip on Twitter and wrote, “Ukraine says 5 Russian planes, 1 helicopter shot down in Luhansk.” The same visuals were shared by news outlet DNA as 'Russian jets entering Ukraine'.

Though it’s true that Ukraine has claimed to have shot down five Russian planes and a helicopter, these visuals could be traced back to at least May 2020.

You can catch all the live updates on Russia-Ukraine tensions here.

CLAIM

The video was shared in a tweet by news organisation Times Now, with a caption noting that Russian jets had been shot down in Ukraine.

News organisation DNA, too, shared the visuals with a claim that it showed 'jets entering Ukraine'.

The same claim was also shared by Al-Resalah Press, a Palestinian news portal with a claim that the video showed "Russian warplanes flying over the Ukrainian capital Kyiv."

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

On going through the comments under Times Now's tweet, we found a tweet by a user 'RobMcD,' who noted that the video was not from Ukraine, but was from an "air parade rehearsal over Tushino in 2020."

The user McDonagh also shared a link to a YouTube video titled 'Parade rehearsal 05/04/2020. Air part. Flight of aircraft over Tushino.' This video was uploaded to a channel called 'GoOn' on 4 May 2020.

The part of the video in the claim that shows five jets flying in a formation can be seen at the 1:12 mark in the video, and the rest of the formations with two and four planes can also be seen as the video goes on.

We were able to match these visuals with the short clip shared by Times Now.

In both stills, the flying formation, the tree and a building in the background are identical to one another.

We looked up 'Toshino Air Parade 2020' for more information and found a CNBC report on Russia's 75th Victory Day parade, which is held on 9 May each year.

According the report, the parade had to be postponed to a later date in June in 2020, owing to the pandemic. The parade marked the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany after the World War II.

According to the BBC, Russia chose to opt out of putting up a spectacle for the celebrations and switched to an air show rehearsal.

We also found another video of the rehearsal uploaded by Russian news organisation Ruptly.

Although we have not been able to independently verify if the visuals are indeed of the rehearsals, but the fact that they were uploaded on YouTube in 2020 makes it clear that they are not related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Further, there was another video in the Times Now's tweet which showed a jet crashing on the ground, but we couldn't confirm whether it was old or recent.

(Update: The story has been updated to add that the same video was shared with a misleading claim by news organisation DNA.)

(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at [e-mail] and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)