FACT CHECK: Does This Video Show Leopard 2 Tanks Stuck In Ukraine?
A video shared on Twitter claims to show Leopard 2 tanks stuck in mud while fighting in Ukraine.
Leopardo 2 is stuck in Ukrainian mud.
It is not known when the video was taken. pic.twitter.com/0ga5B7e9kf— KobaMetalfan (@KobaMetalfan) March 6, 2023
Verdict: False
This video shows Swedish Leopard 2 tanks during a training exercise in April 2022. It was not taken in Ukraine.
Fact Check:
Western countries, such as Poland and Germany, pledged Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, according to Reuters. Sweden also pledged to send at least ten Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, raising the number of total support packages from the country to 11 the outlet reported.
The Twitter video shows Leopard tanks stuck in mud. The video’s caption reads, “Leopardo 2 is stuck in Ukrainian mud. It is not known when the video was taken.”
However, through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found that the video is from April 2022 and takes place in Sweden. The video was shared on the Instagram page of the Swedish military’s Skaraborgs Regiment, an armored unit.
View this post on Instagram
“[T]hings don’t go as planned, being heavy is not always an advantage. Last week, the company was down in Skåne and practiced, and we gained valuable experience in assessing terrain and substrates. If we got a penny for every sod we took, everyone could go on vacation by now. But at least we were lucky,” reads the Instagram post’s caption. (RELATED: Does This Image Show Russian Helicopters Over A Ukrainian Town?)
Joakim Elovsson, the chief public affairs officer for the Skaraborgs Regiment, confirmed to Check Your Fact in an email that the tanks are Swedish and the exercise took place in Sweden.
“The clip in question depicts a joint exercise for the P 4 and P 7 regiments at Revingehed in Skåne (in southern Sweden) in april 2022. During the annual exercise a mechanized battalion practices combat, logistics, medical aid, recovery and more. The film shows Leopard 2 tanks from P 4 during a recovery exercise,” Elovsson said.
This is not the first time footage has been falsely linked to the Russia-Ukraine war. Check Your Fact recently debunked a video that allegedly showed North American Treaty Organization helicopters flying in Ukraine.
