The explosion on the bridge over the Kerch Strait damaged an important supply route for Russia’s forces. While Ukrainian officials celebrated, the explosion they have not claimed responsibility. Russian security services have initially suspected “sabotage,” but stopped short of assigning blame.

As the dust settled—and before Putin’s Monday address in which he claimed, without offering evidence, that Ukraine was behind it—footage began to circulating online, which some claimed showed the moment of a missile strike.

The Claim

Footage posted on Twitter and Telegram between October 8-10, 2022, showed what appears to be a missile striking the Kerch bridge.

The videos feature a mixture of footage shot with a night vision camera, taken from a distance, and without night-vision on the dashboard camera of a vehicle crossing the bridge.

The Facts

While reports have appeared in the past few months about Ukraine’s threats to destroy the bridge, Saturday’s blast was nonetheless hugely surprising, least of all as the frontline of conflict has been concentrated hundreds of miles from Crimea.

Streams of misinformation were always likely to follow such a surprising development but, in this instance, the sheer amateur nature of the “footage” used to accompany claims that a missile strike happened was an instant red flag with regards to its credibility.

There is a number of inconsistencies and “tell-tale” signs that immediately trigger skepticism.

To start with the “night-vision” footage; although the attack happened at night, the “night-vision” does not pick up any of the lights illuminating the bridge, which would clearly stand out if such camera technology was in use.

The areas where the missiles strike in the videos are also far from the site of the actual explosion. The explosion around the missile’s strike zone is also completely flat, as if drawn on to the screen.

As security and dashboard camera footage of the detonation showed, there were huge plumes of thick, dark smoke around the site of the explosion, which is also not present in the night-vision footage.

Newsweek was able to trace the footage to what appears to be the source: a YouTube channel of a CGI video creator called “Mystery UFO.” Only shortly after news spread of the Kerch bridge strike, Mystery UFO posted a stream of videos, including the “night-vision” videos that were then shared elsewhere on social media.

One film that was posted before the “night vision” footage shows the bridge being struck in the daytime which is, firstly, verifiably anachronistic, and, secondly, was executed with a far less convincing VFX of the explosion.

Newsweek found that Mystery UFO regularly posts amateurish computer-generated videos that purport to depict real conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Although the footage viewed on YouTube looks remarkably unconvincing up-close, it was principally shared on Telegram and Twitter from a grainy recording of someone filming the video being watched on a mobile phone. Downgrading the quality of video footage to make it either appear more credible or disguise its artifice is a common misinformation technique.

One other video posted of the “missile strike,” seemingly shot at daytime from a vehicle dashboard camera, is also easily debunked.

Apart from the fact that the attack on Kerch bridge took place at 6am, before the sun rose, the same video was posted in May 2022, attached to a separate false claim that the Kerch bridge had been attacked.

The footage appears to be interpolated between some dashcam footage taken on the bridge and video of an actual explosion elsewhere.

While Russian and Ukrainian officials have traded accusations about who is to blame for the explosion, there is currently no conclusive explanation as to what caused it or who was behind it.

The Ruling

False.

“Night vision” footage of the Crimean bridge under missile fire appears to have been taken from a YouTube channel which regularly posts unconvincing VFX “war footage.” The areas in the video where the “missiles” struck was nowhere near the site of the actual explosion either.

Other footage claiming to capture a missile strike on the bridge was published much earlier this year and is also thought to have been fabricated.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team