FACT CHECK: Does This Video Show Russian Tanks Being Destroyed?

A video shared on Facebook claims to show Russian tanks and other vehicles being destroyed.

Verdict: False

The video shows footage from the video game Arma 3. It is not related to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Fact Check:

Ukrainian officials claim to have destroyed 353 Russian tanks and 1,165 armored vehicles as of March 10, according to Newsweek. Several videos have spread online showing the Ukrainian military destroying Russian vehicles, including one shared by Business Insider that appears to show a Ukrainian armored vehicle destroying a Russian tank.

A seven-minute video shared on Facebook, which has over 2.8 million views, claims to show an aerial view of Russian military vehicles being destroyed by an unidentified aircraft. “See pictures of many destroyed Russian military aircraft and tanks,” the text accompanying the video reads, suggesting the footage is from Ukraine. (RELATED: Does This Video Show A Russian Fighter Jet Being Shot Down In Ukraine?)

The video does not show genuine footage of Russian armor being destroyed in Ukraine. A keyword search found that it actually shows gameplay from ARMA 3, a military-style video game published by Bohemia Interactive. The video was posted on YouTube in August 2021 with the title “Enemy Convoy Destroyed By Apache Helicopter – AH-64D APACHE LONGBOW – Fallujah – ARMA 3 MilSim.”

The YouTube video contains a watermark in the upper right-hand corner reading “Defence Review,” which is the name of the YouTube channel that posted it. The Facebook video has been cropped to remove the watermark.

This is not the first time social media users have claimed footage from Arma 3 is genuine combat footage. Check Your Fact recently debunked a video that claimed to show aerial combat during the first days of the conflict in Ukraine but actually showed Arma 3 gameplay.

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