False: Video showing crisis actors in Ukraine prove the war is a hoax.

By: Matthew Ross
March 9 2022

Share Article:

The video is taken from an unrelated demonstration that happened before the war started and has nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine.Multiple images and videos have circulated on social media, supposedly proving that the media are staging the war in Ukraine. These images and clips are frequently taken from other sources and labeled falsely or misleadingly. In a viral video shared across social media, a reporter stands in front of many body bags. One of the supposed bodies begins moving. The captions to these videos typically state that these are actors and that the Western mainstream media are lying about the war. However, the BBC found that this video is from a "die-in" climate change protest in Vienna, Austria, in February 2022, as covered by the Austrian news company OE24. Posts labeling this scene as part of the war are false. Versions of this viral video are part of several narratives claiming the war is staged. Both Snopes and the BBC have debunked these claims, among others. Almost all rely on repurposed images or clips from other sources, or they misinterpret events such as military training. The video was not shot in Ukraine and depicts living demonstrators engaging in a climate change protest unrelated to the war. They are not crisis actors attempting to mislead the world about the Russian invasion, so the video does not prove that the media are faking the war.