The video claims to show a luxurious and carefree beach life in Odesa, the Black Sea city in southern Ukraine that Russia was never able to occupy, and has received several million views on X/Twitter alone since mid-August.
Scantily dressed women and men, summer and sun and plenty of food and drink stand in stark contrast to the horrific situation along the approximately 2,500 kilometer long front line in Ukraine.
“Please keep the Ukrainian people in your thoughts,” the text accompanying the video in question says sarcastically.
But the video doesn’t show what it claims to do.
Ukraine attacks a strategically important city, lieutenant general believes it could be the beginning of the end. Video: Telegram / X. Reporter: Vegard Krüger / Dagbladet TV Show more
From Berlin and Sochi
The 31-second video, which has also spread on other social media, is apparently composed of three different video clips.
All the clips are supposed to be from Odesa, but the first clip actually originates from the lake Plötzensee in the German capital Berlin. The third clip originates from a beach in Sochi, Russia.
– Drinking like crazy
It reports respectively fact-checking website Logically Facts and Sweden’s national broadcaster SVT.
Both media have geolocated the two clips.
Exactly where the second video clip originates from, which pans along a beach, is unclear. However, it cannot be ruled out that the clip originates from Ukraine or Odesa.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service shares video of what is supposed to be a special operation on the occupied Krym peninsula, August 24, 2023. Video: GUR. Reporter: Vegard Krüger / Dagbladet TV. view more
Shared by anonymous account
The clips have apparently been published elsewhere in the past, and then joined together, writes SVT.
– Clips are published in one context, which later change when they are published on other platforms, says Moa Eriksson Krutrök at Umeå University, who researches the use of social media during the war in Ukraine, to SVT.
Spreading Russian Propaganda: Exposed
The relevant video which SVT has investigated, and which has received the most views, was published on 12 August by an anonymous X/Twitter account.
The account frequently shares material in support of former US President Donald Trump, and critical of current US President Joe Biden and US support for Ukraine.
The US accounts for almost 80 percent of the military support for Ukraine.
LAUGHTER IN THE HALL: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj visited the Danish Parliament on Monday. There he thanked the Danish people for their support – and at the same time caused the audience to burst into laughter. view more
– Strengthens the division
US aid to Ukraine is a contentious issue between some parts of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.
Several high-profile Republican politicians have advocated scaling back the support significantly, or cutting it off altogether.
– The purpose can certainly be to reinforce this division, by spreading this type of clip. Material that portrays Ukrainians in various ways as liars, who take Americans’ money, can of course be beneficial to the American right-wing, says the Swedish researcher.
Sour sting: – We are ready
Should the US cut its support for Ukraine, it is also beneficial for Russia, points out the writer Lasse Josephsen, who has monitored extreme online environments and various online phenomena for a number of years.
He does not know anything in particular about the X/Twitter account that has spread the video in question, but believes it has several similarities with accounts that spread disinformation in favor of pro-Russian actors.
– This is an account that is intended to constantly cast doubt on the “public narrative”, says Josephsen to Dagbladet.
DRONEANGREP: In southern Ukraine, fighting continues along the Dnipro River. New images will show how Russian forces in boats are chased by so-called kamikaze drones. Reporter: Jostein Sletten Show more
– Incredibly harmful
– There are an awful lot of them, and it has become a big problem, because it is something that catches the eye, says Josephsen about new disinformation users appearing on various social media.
He says that the content spreads in several ways. Either by people who are aware of the harmful content spreading it, to cast doubt on what is real. Or by people spreading the content without being aware of what they are actually sharing.
The spreaders often belong to the extreme left and right wing of politics, but are also people who are paid by the Kremlin, according to Josephsen.
Their goal is the same:
– Some go in to spread as much rubbish as possible, and preferably contradictory information. The most important thing for Russia is not that people take their side all the time, but that they sow doubts.
Lasse Josephsen summarizes the essence of spreading this type of information:
– If there are a thousand truths out there, nothing is true anymore.
If you suspect that content on social media is disinformation, he advises you not to spread it.
– Even if you think that there might be something in it, it is incredibly harmful. In addition to being a war on the battlefield, there is a war about which truth to convey, and then it is important not to spread it.
– Don’t want to think about the war
On August 12, Odesa reopened several of its beaches for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24 last year.
– Personally, I think that beach holidays, as a leisure activity, are a bit out of date while our soldiers are fighting for every single meter of Ukrainian land, said Odesa’s mayor Hennadij Trukhanov, before the beaches opened, to CNN.
“Want to kill you”
Others have been more positive about the opening.
– I finally want to be able to swim again, as a distraction, says Jevhen, a student from Mykolajiv, whose school was hit by a Russian airstrike, to Reuters.
– I don’t want to think about the war and horrible things. I don’t want to think about it, he says further.
2023-08-28 13:08:52
#Arousing #attention #Fake
