FACT CHECK: Did Four Russian Castles Blow Up In One Day?
A video shared on Facebook claims that four Russian castles blew up in one day.
Verdict: Misleading
While Ukraine has targeted Russian bases and logistics, there is no evidence that four “castles” were destroyed in a single day.
Fact Check:
Ukraine is expected to launch a counteroffensive in the coming months, though the Biden administration is preparing for the possibility that it fails, according to Politico. Some European allies have also expressed a diplomatic option if Ukraine’s counter fails, the outlet reported.
The Facebook video claims that four Russian castles were blown up in a single day. The video’s caption reads, “4 Russian Castles Blew Up in 1 Day! China’s Attack Shock After Ukraine!”
However, there is no evidence that Russian “castles” have been blown up, let alone multiple ones. If four Russian castles had been blown up, media outlets would have covered it, yet none have. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has not commented on whether or not it has targeted Russian “castles.”
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a non-partisan think tank, issues daily asssesments of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Check Your Fact reviewed its April 12–April 15 campaign assessments and did not find anything indicating that four Russian castles were destroyed. ISW did report in its April 22 assessment that “Ukrainian forces and likely partisans continue to target Russian logistics nodes in rear areas in southern Ukraine.”
Russian bases have been hit in recent days. For example, open source intelligence (OSINT) account NLwartracker wrote on Twitter about a Russian base being hit by Ukrainian fire. (RELATED: Have 100,000 Ukrainian Soldiers Died In The Russian-Ukrainian War?)
Yesterday, news came out that a russian base was presumably hit with at least 12! Himars missiles. The location hit is a building with a green roof near the one of the most used supply route by 🇷🇺 forces in this area. Actually this building was a RemBat location for the 41st… pic.twitter.com/vlWZL2jGWy
— NLwartracker (@NLwartracker) April 16, 2023
“Looking inside the destroyed building things that look to be rectangular objects can be seen however the resolution is too low to definitly identify vehicles or types. What can be said is that of a volly of 12, 9 objects hit their intended target an whreaked havoc inside,” reads part of the tweet.
Misinformation regarding the Ukraine war has circulated widely since its start in February 2022. Check Your Fact recently debunked a claim suggesting newly-released documents from the Pentagon pinned the number of Ukrainian soldier fatalities at 71,000.