2015 Video of Explosion in China Shared as Russian Attack on Ukraine Power Plant

The viral video shows an explosions that took place in the Chinese port city of Tianjin.

Fact-Check | The video of a series of explosions is an old one from China and not from the recent Ukraine-Russia crisis.

(Photo: The Quint)

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a "military operation" in Ukraine on Thursday, 24 February, calling upon Ukraine military to "lay down its arms."

Amid reports of Russian attack on various parts of Ukraine, the video of a massive explosion has gone viral with a claim that it shows a "Russian airstrike setting off a chain reaction at Luhansk power plant in Ukraine."

We, however, found that the video in question showed an explosion that took place in the Chinese port city of Tianjin in 2015.

According to news reports, the explosions took place where toxic chemicals and gas were stored in the industrial area of the city, and killed at least 170 people.

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CLAIM

Those sharing the viral video wrote in the caption, "Ukraine explosion fires started by Russian airstrike set off chain reaction at Luhansk power plant."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

The video has been shared widely on Twitter and Facebook, archives of some of which can be found here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

Using the InVID WeVerify Google Chrome extension, we extracted some keyframes from the viral video and conducted a keyword search on some of them.

While going through the search results, we came across the same video on YouTube that said that the footage showed "Tianjin Explosion" and it was uploaded in 2015.

We then conducted a keyword search for "2015 Tianjin Explosion" and found news reports talking about an explosion that took place in the industrial area of the port city of Tianjin, China. We found the same video uploaded on BBC News' YouTube channel on 14 August 2015.

(NOTE: This video contains explicit language.)

The video was filmed by an eyewitness called Dan Van Duren.

While there have been several unconfirmed reports of blasts in airports, naval bases and cities during the writing of this story, the viral video in question was an old video from China's Tianjin and not a recent attack by Russia on a power plant in Ukraine.

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