FACT CHECK: Does This Video Show A Ukrainian Drone Destroying Russian Tanks?

Elias AtienzaJune 6, 2022

A video shared on Facebook claims to show a Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drone destroying Russian tanks.

Verdict: False

The video is from 2020 and appears to be from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The tanks are not Russian.

Fact Check:

Ukraine has extensively used Bayraktar TB2 drones to attack the Russian military, according to Naval News. A video shared on Facebook, viewed more than 27,000 times, claims to show a Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drone destroying Russian tanks. “Ukraine’s armed forces show a video with a Bayraktar drone destroying Russian tanks,” reads the caption.

The video predates the war in Ukraine. The video was posted to YouTube multiple times in 2020, with one September 2020 version titled, “Azerbaijan Army on Going Destroy Armenian Tanks and Military Vehicles With Bayraktar TB2 UCAV.” Another version, posted on Sept. 28, 2020, is titled “Azerbaijan Bayraktar TB2 Drone Attack in Garabagh.”

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Azerbaijan and Armenia have sporadically fought over the contested enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh since the 1990s, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. A six-week war broke out between the two nations most recently in 2020, Foreign Policy reported. Azerbaijan won the war partly because of its effective use of TB2 drones, according to the outlet.

In the YouTube videos, the Azerbaijan flag is visible in the upper left-hand corner. The flag appears to have been replaced by an unidentified insignia in the Facebook video.

Oryx, an open-source defense analyst website that tracks vehicle combat losses in various conflicts, stated on Twitter that the footage was from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. (RELATED: Does This Footage Show Destruction In Ukraine?)

Footage from the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War https://t.co/zKa9dntIEn

— Oryx (@oryxspioenkop) June 2, 2022

This is not the first time old war footage has been shared by social media users who claim it depicts fighting in Ukraine. For example, Check Your Fact recently debunked a viral video claiming to show heavy fighting in Ukraine but actually showed French Foreign Legion soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.