A video of a massive fire caused by a fuel tanker explosion in Onitsha, Nigeria is being shared with a false claim that it is from Ukraine and shows the ongoing Russian invasion.
On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he is launching a 'special military operation' in Ukraine, following which Russia invaded the country. Ukraine is currently witnessing conflict in several cities including the capital Kyiv, with constant Russian airstrikes. Several videos of the aftermath of these Russian strikes have since emerged on social media.
In the 10 seconds video, we can a huge cloud of smoke shooting upwards from a massive fire and a crowd gathered on the opposite side of the road.
The video is being shared with the caption which translated reads, "Terrible scene of war Some terrible picture is coming out in the war going on between Russia and Ukraine #ukraine #russia"
(In Hindi - युद्ध का भयानक मंजर रूस और यूक्रेन के बीच में लड़ाई जा रहे युद्ध में कुछ भयानक तस्वीर सामने आ रही है #ukraine #russia)
The same video is being shared on Facebook with the same false claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video is from an incident in Upper Iweka Onitsha, Nigeria, after a fuel tanker exploded on January 28, 2022.
We broke the video into key-frames and performed a reverse image search which showed several tweets with the viral video stating that the incident is from Nigeria,
Using that as a hint, we ran a keyword search with "obodo ukwu junction" "onitsha" "fire", and found a BBC News Pidgin live broadcast of the incident where we can spot the same location.
At the 5.16 minutes timestamp we can spot the same building that can be seen in the viral video and also we can see the wreckage after the fire was extinguished .
We also found the same video in local Nigerian news reports on the incident where we can see similar visuals of the massive fire.
Channel Television reported on the incident stating that a tanker laden with substance suspected to be Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, had exploded in Anambra State, Nigeria and according to reports, the incident occurred on January 28, 2022, at the Upper Iweka junction of Onitsha – the state's commercial hub.
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BOOM has debunked several pieces of misinformation around the conflict with unrelated videos and images being shared with false claims. Follow our thread below:
Additional inputs by Sujith A