Digitized images are from a video game; they’re not from Ukraine war footage

A recent Facebook post suggests that the video featured in it shows footage of the war in Ukraine. 

"Russia has lost more than 680 tanks," the April 3 post says. "American AT vs Soviet tanks."

The four-minute video clip shows tanks in wooded terrain, some aflame after being hit by a rocket. But the scenes are clearly digitized. That’s because the footage is from a video game. 

Featured Fact-check

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

Searching for the post’s video description turns up a YouTube post from about a year earlier. It has the same description, but identifies the video as being from "Arma 3," a military simulation game. 

We rate claims that this clip shows real footage from the war in Ukraine False.