Post shows video game footage, not the war in Ukraine

What’s being described as footage of the war in Ukraine is seen through a scope, with faint chatter in the background and the blast of weapons obliterating tanks on the ground. 

"In Saturday Russian artillery tanks was completely destroyed by Bayraktar TB2 drones," reads a grammatically problematic July 3 Facebook post sharing the video. 

But if you watch long enough, the clip is clearly glitchy and the aesthetics might seem familiar — we’ve previously fact-checked videos like it that mischaracterize video game footage to make it seem like it’s a recording of live combat in Eastern Europe. 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Searching for the video’s description online, we found a YouTube post that gives more context, informing the reader that this isn’t real war footage. 

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Threads posts

stated on November 10, 2024 in a Threads post

“NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says that ‘if Trump surrenders Ukraine to Putin, he will personally expel the United States from the alliance.’”

"This type of drones are used in Russia," the YouTube post says.  

The account has shared similar clips before, though it’s more clearly labeled in other cases as video game footage.

"THIS IS ONLY SIMULATION, NOT REAL LIFE!" one such post says.  

We rate claims that this is real war footage False.