Any war-like situation leads to flow of false or misleading information, especially on social media. The same is happening in Ukraine, where Russian forces launched an invasion nearly two weeks ago.
Some of these "bizarre" theories claim that the Ukraine war is a hoax, and exaggerated by the West.
Despite the images showing thousands of people leaving Ukraine, some of the internet users have refused to believe that the crisis is real.
They present outlandish claims that actors are being used to act out scenes from an attack to prove that the war is a hoax. One such claim is in the form of a video circulating on Facebook and other platforms, which shows a young man and a young woman having fake blood applied to his face. Many people are calling them “crisis actors”.
The video, however, is not related to the war. It shows the preparation of a scene for Ukrainian TV series Contamin in 2020. See the original tweet below:
Bts from set of Contamin tv series. #backstage #unitstillsphotography #onset #bts #setlife #hvozdkov #ukrainian @FujifilmX_US @_fujilove_ #fujixt30 pic.twitter.com/8xBY0HTjkk
— CinemaPeople (@CinemaPeople_) December 7, 2020
Then there is another video which shows a news reporter in front of several body bags. After a few seconds, one of the body bags starts moving and a man removes the cover. Widely shared on social media platforms, the text accompanying the video says, "More propaganda by west: A corpse came back to life during live reporting of human catastrophe by a Polish channel."
More propaganda by west:
— Kshitij 🇮🇳 (@jgdkshitij) March 1, 2022
A corpse came back to life during live reporting of human catastrophe by a Polish channel😅😂@srdmk01 pic.twitter.com/TOEesR1bxp
But the claim is false. The video is actually from a climate change protest organised by "Friday For Future" in Austria's Vienna in February, according to this news report. The body bags, part of the protest, were aimed at showing the dangers of carbon emissions to life on Earth.
Another video of a Fox News video showing Ukrainian men holding wooden guns has also gone viral to support claims of war being Western propaganda. The images, however, are of a training camp from pre-war times, which shows civilians being trained to face Russians when the time comes.
Finally, the tweet about actor Steven Seagal spotted among Russian special forces near Kyiv also turned out to be false. The tweet carried the image of CNN's verified Twitter handle, which the channel said was fabricated. Mr Seagal, who holds both American and Russian citizenships, told Fox News last week he hoped for a "peaceful resolution" to the conflict.
