As of early June 2025, the Russia-Ukraine war has intensified after Ukraine executed a series of bold drone strikes deep within Russian territory, targeting key military installations. Notably, Operation Spiderweb involved attacks on four Russian airbases, resulting in the destruction of numerous strategic bombers and causing substantial damage to Russia’s military infrastructure. These actions have been accompanied by ongoing Russian missile and drone assaults on Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv and Sumy, leading to civilian casualties and infrastructure damage. Amidst these developments, peace talks in Istanbul have yielded limited progress, with both sides remaining far apart on key issues.
Amidst this, a video claiming to show massive explosions in Moscow, the capital of Russia, is being circulated on social media platforms (here, here, and here). Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: The video shows massive explosions in Moscow during the recent June 2025 Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Fact: The viral video does not show explosions in Moscow in June 2025. It is a compilation of old visuals from previous conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. The first part of the footage is from December 2023, showing a Ukrainian airstrike destroying the Russian landing ship Novocherkassk in the Crimean port of Feodosia. The second part shows a large fire and explosion at an oil base in Feodosia, Crimea, caused by a Ukrainian drone strike in October 2024. Both events took place in Crimea and are unrelated to Moscow or the June 2025 conflict. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to a news report published by Guardian News on 27 December 2023, featuring the first part of the footage, which shows a massive explosion. The video, titled Moment Ukrainian airstrike hits Russian warship in Crimea, confirms that the viral clip is unrelated to the recent Russia-Ukraine conflict in June 2025 and does not show explosions in Moscow. It is also clear that the viral video is a compilation of two different clips.
We also found a Guardian News article featuring the same video of the explosion. According to the report, it shows Ukraine’s military destroyed a Russian landing ship stationed in the Crimean port city of Feodosia. The footage captures a large fire in the port area following an air force strike on the Novocherkassk navy ship, which was located in Russian-controlled Crimean waters.
According to reports (here, here, and here), in December 2023, Ukrainian forces carried out a missile strike on the port of Feodosia in Crimea, damaging a Russian warship. Russia’s Ministry of Defence confirmed that the large landing ship Novocherkassk was struck and damaged by Ukrainian aircraft using guided missiles. Officials in Crimea reported that one person was killed and several others injured in the attack. The Novocherkassk is a large landing ship designed to transport troops, tanks, and armoured vehicles. The reports also mentioned that Kyiv suspected the vessel was carrying Iranian-made explosive drones, which Russia has frequently used in attacks on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
To verify the second part of the viral video, which shows a massive explosion along the lakeside, we conducted a reverse image search of the keyframes. This led us to a news report video on Kanal13’s YouTube channel, published on 11 October 2024, featuring the same footage. The report stated that a fire had broken out at an oil base in Crimea’s Feodosia following a Ukrainian drone strike on 07 October 2024, and that the fire was still ongoing. It also mentioned that another explosion occurred in a fuel tank at the base on the evening of 10 October 2024. Visuals of the explosion and fire were captured and shared by residents.
We also found multiple media outlets covering the same incident, which can be found here, here, here, here, and here.
To sum up, a compilation of two old videos from Crimea is falsely shared as that of explosions in Moscow during the ongoing June 2025 Russia-Ukraine conflict.
