A social media post accompanying a screenshot of CNN coverage of war in Ukraine is being widely circulated. Pointing at the jackets with ‘Edmonton’ (Canadian city) written on them, the post expresses suspicion over CNN’s coverage of the war in Ukraine. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: CNN telecasted footage of firefighters in Canada as Ukrainian war visuals.
Fact: Protective gears worn by the Ukrainian fighters as shown in the viral screenshot, were actually donated by ‘Firefighter Aid Ukraine’, an Edmonton based nonprofit organisation. The director of the organisation confirmed the same. Also through couple of Facebook posts, the NGO categorically stated that the protective gears were donated by them. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
There were news reports of the Russian military attacking the western Ukrainian city of Lviv in the last week of March 2022. As per the reports the city was hit by multiple rockets (here & here).
However, the protective gears worn by the Ukrainian fighters as shown in the viral screenshot were actually donated by ‘Firefighter Aid Ukraine’, an Edmonton-based nonprofit organisation.
As the news suspecting the CNN coverage of the news went viral, Firefighter Aid Ukraine, through a Facebook post clarified that the protective gear was donated by Edmonton firefighters. The post also shares a screenshot of CNN coverage of the Russian attack on Lviv city.
Another post categorically states that the organisation donated jackets (Edmonton written on them) to firefighters in Lviv back in 2017. The post also shared an image of firefighters receiving the jackets back in 2017.
Taking a cue from this, a Google search with relevant keywords yielded a couple of 2017 news reports of Edmonton firefighters donating protective gear, oxygen tanks, and other equipment to the Ukrainian firefighters (here & here).
Further, multiple news agencies reported Kevin Royle, a firefighter in Edmonton and the founder of Firefighter Aid Ukraine, confirming that the jackets were actually donated by them to the Ukrainian firefighters (here & here). All of these establish the fact that the CNN footage indeed showed visuals from the war-hit Ukrainian city of Lviv.
To sum it up, CNN did not report visuals from Canada as being from the war-hit Ukrainian city of Lviv. The visuals are indeed from Ukraine.
