The clip was shared by several accounts on Twitter and Telegram, shortly after Russia confirmed that Ukrainian artillery struck a base in the occupied town of Makiivka in the eastern Donetsk region, where hundreds of Russian recruits were stationed.

Russia’s defense ministry said Monday, January 2, that Ukraine’s rocket attacks at one of its bases in the occupied town of Makiivka in the eastern Donetsk region killed 63 soldiers. It later updated the death toll to 89, and blamed the soldiers for exposing their location via mobile phones.

The casualty count is the single largest incident loss Russia has recognized since President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

The Claim

Several prominent Twitter and Telegram channels have shared the video featuring defense minister Sergei Shoigu alongside a group of guests and musicians who joined him on stage.

The 51-second video shows a smiling Shoigu dancing and singing in a crowd of people while holding a microphone to the cheers of onlookers. He sings along with a live band and singers in an indoor setting, decorated with Christmas trees.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled Russian businessman and opposition activist, who is now based in London, shared the clip on Twitter.

“Can anyone confirm that this is footage from this year? After the death of a significant part of the regiment mobilized in Makeevka? If yes, then it’s even worse than I could imagine..,” Khodorkovsky, 59, tweeted on Monday.

At the time of writing, the clip had been viewed more than 62,000 times.

The same footage was also shared on Telegram by Ukrainian journalist Anatoly Shariy, who asked his followers: “Is it this year? Seriously? I do not believe.”

His post was viewed nearly 800,000 times at the time of writing.

The video circulated after Russia’s defense ministry said on its official Telegram channel that the Ukrainian military fired six rockets from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) launch system and that two of the missiles were shot down by air defense systems.

The Facts

Shortly after the video began to make the rounds on social media, BlackMirror, a Russian-language Telegram channel, said that it had posted an old clip of Shoigu at 15:33 GMT on January 2.

The channel claimed it was the original source of the clip, and although Newsweek could not immediately corroborate this, we have so far found no earlier posts with the video.

“Our whole BlackMirror team is laughing ))) We decided to share an OLD video of Shoigu singing the Moscow Nights [a Soviet pop song - Newsweek] ) Lot’s of people picked it up, without citing us and embarrassing themselves ))),” the channel’s administrators wrote, in Russian.

Other Twitter users pointed out that in the video, Shoigu appears to be wearing some of the same clothes, including the “PutinTeam” branded denim jacket and jeans combo, that he wore on January 1, 2022.

An article by Komsomolskaya Pravda, dated January 1, 2022, shows Shoigu in this outfit, alongside his daughter and her husband.

But there are some inconsistencies that stand in the way of conclusive verification.

Namely, as some Twitter users pointed out, the shirt the minister is wearing under the jacket is white, while it appears to be beige in the video. He is also wearing different shoes (white vs brown in the clip), as per a larger version of the photo Newsweek found on a local Instagram page, dated January 5, 2022.

While the quality of the footage is poor, it also appears that there is some kind of shiny badge visible on his left-hand chest pocket, just below the “Putin team” label seen on the 2022 photo.

Finally, according to the article, the family picture was taken in Tuva, Shoigu’s home republic in southern Siberia. But the video, at least according to the Telegram channels and media outlets that shared it, was filmed at “one of the most expensive restaurants in Moscow,” though the exact location was not named.

The combination of these factors leaves several possibilities. One is that the minister had gone to the party on New Year’s Eve in 2021, then changed some of his clothes and took a flight home to Tuva.

It is also possible that the video was filmed not at the end of 2021, but at another time altogether (though that is contradicted by BlackMirror channel), and the partially-matching outfit was simply a coincidence.

Or, it could also be that the video is indeed from this year’s celebration, during which the minister may have worn a similar outfit to that of the 2021/2022 party (but with a different top and shoes).

While Newsweek could not find any versions of the video predating last week, it is possible that the video was filmed a year or more ago, but only made public recently (indeed, some social media users have speculated that Telegram channels associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin have “sat on it” so as to publish at a convenient time in order to undermine the defense minister).

This theory, too, however, is purely speculative and as of Wednesday, January 4, 2023, Newsweek could not find sufficient evidence that dates the video, and therefore the claim suggesting Shoigu was “partying” as a battalion of Russian troops was annihilated in a HIMARS strike remains unconfirmed.

Newsweek has reached out to Russia’s Foreign and Defense Ministries for comment.

The Ruling

Unverified.

The claim that Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu attended a party as Russian soldiers were killed in a HIMARS strike in Makiivka is unverified.

While some channels have since its publication claimed that the video pre-dates the 2023 New Year celebrations (and could be a year old or more), there is no conclusive evidence to confirm this.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team