Heightened tensions are prevailing following the US military strikes against Iran. US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the completion of a new wave of military strikes against targets in Iran, with operations lasting five consecutive hours. US forces targeted critical military sites across several areas of Iran, including Bushehr, Chabahar, Jask, Konarak, Bandar Abbas and Abu Musa Island.
In the above context, a viral video showing a massive explosion at an oil facility has gone viral on social media. The footage, which shows a large fireball and plumes of black smoke, has been shared widely with captions alleging Israeli military action against Iranian energy infrastructure.
The social media users shared the video with a caption claiming it depicts an Israeli strike targeting Iran’s largest oil refinery amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “BREAKING: Israel launches major attack with over 100 missiles on Iran, striking its largest oil refinery in a bid to cripple its oil infrastructure. Support the US and Israel overthrowing Iran’s terror regime? A. Yes B. No (sic)”
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The viral video is old and is from a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow.
On a Google reverse image search, we found that the same video was shared by The Independent on June 16. In the video at around 19 seconds, we can see the same footage as seen in the viral video. The video was shared with a caption that reads, “A Ukrainian drone sparked a fire and damaged a facility at Moscow region's largest refinery on Tuesday.”
We found that the screenshot of the video was also shared by a UK website, UP Day, on June 22. The video was shared with a caption that reads, “Over 1,000 Ukrainian drones strike Russia as Crimea forced to ration gasoline." The report associated with the screenshot suggested that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukrainian forces carried out an attack on an oil refinery in Russia's Tyumen region, which is more than 2,000 kilometres away from Ukraine's western Siberian border. The strikes employed new ‘FP drones’ developed by the Ukrainian company Fire Point, which reportedly have a range of up to 3,000 kilometres.”
The incident was also reported by a Ukrainian website, Ukrainska Pravda, on June 17. The report suggests that a senior NATO official said Ukrainian strikes inside Russia are increasingly disrupting Moscow’s war effort by damaging logistics hubs, energy infrastructure, air defence systems and radar stations. NATO believes Ukraine can hit targets up to 200 km behind the front line and likely destroyed more than 130 Russian logistics support vehicles with drones in May alone.
Hence, we can ascertain that the video shows a Ukrainian drone attack on a Moscow oil refinery, not an Israeli strike on Iran.
