FACT CHECK: Did Ukraine Use Props To Fake Damage At The Odesa Cathedral?
Sky News plays a clip of a “bombed” Ukraine building in the background.
Keep a close eye on the women carrying the “heavy concrete stones”.
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pic.twitter.com/OXjpBmnipz— intheMatrixxx (@intheMatrixxx) July 25, 2023
Verdict: False
The woman is not carrying concrete stones but a lighter build material.
Fact Check:
The over-200-year-old Odesa Cathedral was heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike in late July, according to The New York Times. Russia has increased its drone and missile strikes on the port city in recent weeks, the outlet reported.
The tweet implies that the attack was faked, putting “bombed” in quotes and points to a woman carrying “heavy concrete stones.” The tweet reads, “Sky News plays a clip of a ‘bombed’ Ukraine building in the background. Keep a close eye on the women carrying the ‘heavy concrete stones.'” (RELATED: Does The Department Of Defense Pay For Abortions?)
This claim, however, is highly misleading. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found that the original video comes from Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet. The Rudaw video shows is of a much higher quality.
The video shows the woman carrying building material that is lighter than “heavy concrete stones.” Logically Facts reported that the material is “lightweight building material, likely insulation” and that the video also shows the woman carrying a material with “polystyrene-like appearance in a manner completely unlike someone pretending to carry a heavy object.”
Video from The Guardian also shows the damage caused by the missile strike.
Russia did not deny that the Odesa Cathedral was damaged, but blamed Ukrainian air defenses for the damage caused, according to BBC News. One person was killed and 19 were injured in the wave of attacks, the outlet reported.
