FACT CHECK: Video Showing Ukrainian Troops In Vovchansk Is From 2022
A video shared on X claims to show Ukrainian troops in Vovchansk, Ukraine in June 2024.
Ukrainian forces liberated Vovchansk, a city in Chuhuiv Raion, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine.
A month into Russia’s push across the border in northern Ukraine, Western weapons and Ukrainian reinforcements have largely stalled the attack. pic.twitter.com/VF0jbRb7ho
— War&Peace (@realpeacenotwar) June 16, 2024
Verdict: Misleading
The video is from September 2022, when Ukrainian troops retook the city during its fall counter-offensive.
Fact Check:
A post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, purports to show a 2024 video of Ukrainian troops retaking Vovchansk, Ukraine from Russian troops.
“Ukrainian forces liberated Vovchansk, a city in Chuhuiv Raion, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine,” the caption read. “A month into Russia’s push across the border in northern Ukraine, Western weapons and Ukrainian reinforcements have largely stalled the attack.”
This video, though, appears to be from September 2022. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found that the video likely shows when Ukrainian troops retook the city from Russian forces during their 2022 counteroffensive in Kharkiv oblast, which was covered by The Washington Post. The same video was posted in 2022 with a caption that identifies it as “the first five minutes after the liberation.”
First minutes after the liberation of Vovchansk by the Ukrainian defenders pic.twitter.com/w980oWJukB
— Giorgi Revishvili (@revishvilig) September 12, 2022
Ukrainian troops have not dislodged Russian forces from the city as of June 17, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Fighting in the city as continued and at least one Russian military blogger has claimed recent advances, per the ISW’s June 17 report. (RELATED: Fact Checking Biden’s Claim That He Was ‘Appointed’ To The Naval Academy)
“Russian forces also continued offensive operations north of Kharkiv City near Lyptsi and northeast of Kharkiv City near central Vovchansk and Vovchanski Khutory…A Russian milblogger claimed that Russian forces advanced 300 meters in the Vovchansk direction…” the ISW’s June 17 report reads.
