Fact Check: Old video of derailed Russian military wagon resurfaces with war-related claims
India Today
A viral video claims that a derailed Russian military wagon is from the border city of Bryansk. However, the India Today AFWA found the claim to be misleading. The video is unrelated to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
As the war wages on in Ukraine, invading Russian forces have intensified their offence by introducing missiles from submarines to neutralise enemy targets. The report comes not long after Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy said life has become "difficult" in Donbas and Kharkiv due to Russian attacks.
Amidst these developments, a video has become viral on social media in which Russian military vehicles were seen toppled close to a derailed train. It is shared with write-ups criticising the Russian inefficiency along with throwing questions about the chances of sabotage. The viral posts identify the place of the incident as the Russian town of Bryansk.
"Russian are so agile that they can’t even deliver equipment normally. Russian incompetence or railway saboteurs. What do you think? Video allegedly filmed near Bryansk," one such Facebook post was captioned.
Similar claims have been archived here and here.
The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. This video is available online since 2017. Russian media reports state this rail mishap happened in the city of Chita.
A reverse search of the video's screenshots on Yandex took us to a couple of videos on YouTube. Both these videos were uploaded in September 2017 -- years before the full-fledged invasion of Ukraine by Putin's forces began.
One of these had a detailed description. When translated, we learnt that the Russian channel claimed the video was shot from the Transbaikalia region and a personnel was injured in the incident. Transbaikalia or Transbaikal is a mountainous region situated in eastern Russia.
