Video appears to show Kenyan soldiers, not Russians

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has been more challenging than its leaders expected, analysts say. And while some experts have attributed that to poor coordination, logistical challenges and Ukrainian defense, one TikTok video suggests part of the reason for Russia’s difficult road so far is its use of outdated equipment.

The video shared on Facebook March 13 showed camouflaged soldiers attempting to fire what appears to be a rocket-propelled grenade. Instead, the grenade fails to launch and the camera captures what looks like the soldiers scrambling for cover.

"Russian soldiers using weapons that have been in a cupboard since Soviet times," read a caption written across the video. The headline below the video says "#russian" and "#ukraine."

The 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.)

Fact-checkers at Lead Stories found a longer version of the same video on YouTube with the caption, "KDF officers Escape death after their RPG failed to launch" posted on Feb. 23. This video shows the soldiers running and collapsing nearby while the person filming them can be heard laughing.

KDF stands for Kenya Defence Forces and the uniforms the soldiers are seen wearing appear to match those seen in an image posted March 20, 2022, on the Kenya Defence Forces official Facebook page. We reached out to the Kenya Ministry of Defence, but have not gotten a response.

We contacted experts for more information.

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Scott Boston, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, researches land warfare, with an emphasis on Russian military capabilities.

"I can’t tell who they are," Boston said of the soldiers in the video, "but they aren’t uniformed as Russian soldiers in general nor do they have the armbands we are usually seeing."

U.K. Royal United Services Institute analyst Nick Reynolds told Lead Stories that the uniform seen in the video did recall that of Kenyan military: "The camouflage pattern and, in particular, the body armour design indicate that the personnel in question are from the Kenyan Defence Forces," he said in Lead Stories’ fact-check.

We found the video had been shared widely in the last month, however, with claims that it shows soldiers from Ghana, Nigeria and Ukraine.

What we do know: the uniforms do not appear to match ones we found in photos of Russian soldiers.

A video claimed to show Russian soldiers fleeing for safety after failing to fire a rocket-propelled grenade.

One expert told us the soldiers in the video don’t appear to be Russian, based on their uniforms and lack of armbands. The uniforms do not seem to match ones in photos we found of Russian soldiers.

The uniforms appear to match those worn by the military in Kenya, based on images and a longer version of the video found on YouTube. We rate this claim False.