Russians made new fake military video, trying to spread it in Ukraine

The Russian Center for Information and Psychological Operations created a new staged video about the war in Ukraine that is currently spreading on Ukrainian social media accounts. Russian propagandist Andriy Rudenko, who had already distributed such videos before, became the first source of this video. The video is circulating as it is allegedly recorded from the GoPro camera of a Ukrainian soldier who was allegedly killed and then the camera was taken away.

The video shows an unknown person in a Ukrainian uniform staging the conduct of hostilities from a pit. He then feigns injury and death. The camera is almost always pointed at the ground.

"Video from a captured GoPro of a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, from a destroyed stronghold, in a forward position near the settlement of Avdiyivka by assault units of the 1st Army Corps," Andriy Rudenko added to the description of the video. The staging of this video shows several moments at once, which are clearly visible if you slow down the video.

Firstly, the camera captured two "assistants" of the actor, whom they first tried to hide with the camera flash. As the actor feigns a serious wound and screams about being wounded, the frame reappears with an unidentified person standing still during the "fight". Then an unknown person, 1 meter away from the actor, shoots on the ground, probably in order not to hit the actor, and pretends that the enemy breaks into the pit and finishes off the "wounded soldier".

Secondly, the "blood" did not flow from the actor when he was allegedly "injured", but only when he pointed the camera to the right place. Presumably, the actor at this moment released a bag with artificial blood or something similar in color, after which the fighter's "bleeding" stopped altogether.

The camera flashes sharply as it zooms in on two unidentified people standing over the pit

The camera captures an unknown person standing full-length over the pit

Release of simulated blood when the camera captures the desired location

An unknown person shoots into the ground a meter away from the actor

It is also worth noting that an identifying mark -- blue tape -- was wrapped on the barrel cover so that it was better visible on the camera. This should convince the viewer that this is indeed a "Ukrainian serviceman".

Propagation in Ukraine

Despite the poor quality of the filmed material, the Russian Center for Information and Psychological Operations managed to spread this video through Ukrainian media and social media.

This video was shared on the Telegram channel of Ukrainian journalist Andrii Tsaplienko, who has more than 300,000 subscribers. The video also appeared on the Ukrainian Telegram channels "All-Seeing OKO Ukraine" (over 1 million subscribers) and the WARSHAL channel, which has over 100,000 subscribers.

Staged video of the Russian PSYOP center on Ukrainian Telegram channels

Ukrainian channels added text to the description of the video, that was not in the original Russian source.

"The terrible footage was captured on a GoPro camera of a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Near Avdiivka, the Russians captured our stronghold and badly wounded a soldier. No one had time to come to his aid, and he died 30 seconds later," says the description of the video on Ukrainian Telegram channels.

As previously reported, even before the full-scale invasion, propagandist Andriy Rudenko distributed staged videos with "injured civilians."