Putin Propaganda: Russia Accused of Creating Fake Body-cam Footage of Ukrainian Soldiers Dying in Trenches
July 27 2023, Published 5:00 p.m. ET
Internet sleuths have exposed what they believe to be a highly deceptive social media propaganda campaign orchestrated by Vladimir Putin and Russia, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The campaign reportedly involved a video clip that supposedly showed bodycam footage of a Ukrainian soldier dying in a trench.
However, analysts pointed out several alleged markers that showed the video was fake and part of Putin and Russia's ongoing disinformation campaign regarding the war in Ukraine.
The video, which was posted by a pro-war Russian account called Rudenko, initially appeared to show a Ukrainian soldier stumbling in a trench after being shot.
The owner of the bodycam then dropped to his knees and blood was seen gushing from underneath the camera. The clip ended with the soldier groaning as bullets hit the trench wall beside him.
But upon closer analysis, it became clear that the video was possibly fabricated and only created to demoralize Ukraine's supporters.
A Twitter account run by a pro-Ukrainian profile that tracks disinformation campaigns performed the bulk of the analysis, according to Daily Mail. The user also highlighted several apparent errors in the video.
According to the pro-Ukraine Twitter user, the blood in the video did not “spurt or spray” from the soldier but instead fell in a clump – indicating the possible use of a blood pack.
Additionally, gases can be seen escaping on the right-hand side of the screen as bullets hit the trench wall – suggesting that the gun was being fired just out of shot.
These markers seemingly indicated a poorly-directed reconstruction by Russian soldiers attempting to create a false sense of danger.
Meanwhile, the user also provided evidence of other staged scenes by the same pro-Russian channel that published the allegedly fabricated trench video.
Another video included footage of close-quarter combat with “unrealistic weapon usage” and a clip that depicted surgeons as they harvested organs from wounded troops with “exaggerated movements.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, this would not be the first time Putin and Russia published supposedly fabricated content in an effort to drum up support for the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin was previously accused of hiring actors to pose as soldiers and wearing body armor underneath his suit for his annual televised New Year address earlier this year.
Several individuals seen around Putin on multiple occasions were also suspected to be alleged actors or members of his security detail.
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Putin himself has regularly been accused of utilizing body doubles while taking trips to potentially dangerous parts of Russia or even the frontlines of Ukraine.
“We know specifically about three people that keep appearing, but how many there are, we don't know,” Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, claimed late last year. "They all had plastic surgery to look alike.”
"The one thing that gives them away is their height. It's visible in videos and pictures,” he continued. “Also gesturing, body language, and earlobes, since they are unique for every person."
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