Russian propagandists have attempted to pass off footage circulating on social media of a Russian T-90M tank being blown up in the war in Ukraine as an Israeli Merkava tank being destroyed by Hamas militants.
The footage appeared on Telegram over the weekend, at the same time as Hamas militants were attacking Israel from the Gaza Strip. The ongoing violence there has killed about 900 people in Israel and more than 600 in Gaza, accord to the Associated Press.
The video was shared by Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, including by VGTRK war correspondent Andrey Rudenko, who has over 270,000 subscribers.
"Hamas is burning the "best" tanks in the world one by one," Rudenko wrote.
In response, Ukrainian journalist Yurii Butusov said on Monday on his Telegram channel that Russian propagandists were attempting to present the video footage of a Russian T-90M tank being blown up as an Israeli Merkava being destroyed by Hamas.
He published screenshots of the posts in which he said Russian propagandists had shared the video. A number of news outlets, including independent investigative Russian publication The Insider, have reported that the tank in the footage is a Russian T-90M in Ukraine.
The Israel Defense Forces have used the Merkava Mk.4 Main Battle Tank since 2004.
Newsweek, which has contacted Russia's defense ministry via email for comment, was unable to verify the details of the video by the time of publication.
The Dutch open-source outlet Oryx said that since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022, Russia has lost at least 2,362 tanks, of which 1,542 were destroyed, 132 were damaged, 138 were abandoned and 550 were captured.
Meanwhile, figures published by Ukraine's General Staff on Facebook on Tuesday claimed that six Russian tanks were destroyed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total Russian tank losses since the war began last year to 4,829. Independent sources give numbers that are more conservative than Kyiv's, and Russia doesn't publish figures on its military losses.
Ukraine often releases drone footage showing the destruction of Russian military equipment and vehicles, including tanks.
A brigade with the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces published a video in August that purportedly showed the moment a Russian T-90 tank was destroyed in a drone strike after falling off a cliff in Ukraine.
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Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel ... Read more
