Old Video From Afghanistan Falsely Shared As NATO Troops in Ukraine
BOOM found that the viral video is from Afghanistan and dates back to August 2021 when the Taliban took over the country and the subsequent US withdrawal.
An old video from Afghanistan of a large crowd gathered at the airport runway with several helicopters taking off is being shared with the false claim that it shows the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) troops landing in Ukraine.
NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between 31 member states from North America and Europe, prominently consisting of the United States, Germany, United Kingdom. Ukraine is not part of the NATO.
The video was tweeted by a Twitter user Dane (@UltraDane) with the caption. "In case you missed it, NATO soldiers now in Ukraine."
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video dates back to August 2021 from Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover of the country and the subsequent United States withdrawal. The video pre-dates the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and is not recent as being claimed.
Taking a hint from the replies that the video is from Afghanistan, we ran a reverse image search using Google which search results showed that the video was uploaded on YouTube back in August 2021.
The video was uploaded by the channel - "FUNKER530 - Veteran Community & Combat Footage" on August 18, 2021, with the caption, "US Soldier Films Chaos From MRAP Gunner Turret In Kabul".
The description of the video reads, "There has been piles of videos coming out of the chaotic effort to evacuate US and partner nation personnel from the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), but this is the first footage we have received that was filmed by an actual service member taking part in the evacuation security operations."
It further reads, "The footage is filmed by a turret gunner in a mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicle, and it shows the use of AH-64 Apache gunships to clear the runway for C-17 aircraft. It also gives scope of the massive crowd of desperate Afghans that are hoping to hitch a ride out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan."
The visuals in this video match with the viral video.
We also found another video shot during the US evacuation at the Internation Aiport where similar helicopters can be seen flying around and the background matches the viral video which indicates that it is the same location.
Additionally, we did not find any credible news reports on NATO intervening in the Russia - Ukraine conflict and sending troops to Ukraine to combat Russia.
BOOM could not independently verify the incident in the viral video, however we were able to establish that it is not recent showing NATO troops in Ukraine as being claimed
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