A video of an explosion of a structure is being shared on social media as the visuals of the Nova Kakhovka Dam explosion in Ukraine, which led to massive flooding in June 2023 (here and here). Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.
Claim: This video shows visuals of the Nova Kakhovka Dam explosion in Ukraine in June 2023.
Fact: The viral video is from November 2022 and shows the explosion that occurred during that time, not the June 2023 Nova Kakhovka Dam explosion. Hence the claim made in the post is Misleading.
Although the viral video shows the occurrence of an explosion on the Nova Kakhovka Dam, our research revealed that this video dates back to November 2022 and is not related to the recent explosion of the Nova Kakhovka Dam.
Through a reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video, we discovered that it originated in November 2022, not in June 2023, as claimed. Multiple news reports (here, here, and here) published during that time described the video as footage of the Nova Kakhovka Dam being damaged due to an explosion.
Maxar Technologies, a space tech company, released satellite images that clearly showed the extent of the damage caused to the dam. The incident was attributed to the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Media outlets reported that Russia was behind this blast, while Russia blamed Ukraine for the destruction. Nevertheless, the evidence confirms that the viral video existed on the internet months before the June 2023 explosion of the Nova Kakhovka Dam.
To sum up, a video from November 2022 is falsely attributed to the recent damage to the Nova Kakhovka dam.