Video Purporting to Show Iranian Attack on Israel Is Actually a Ukraine Strike on Crimea

Analysts have used geolocation to show that the video was taken in Sevastopol.

By Alex Demas

Apr 15, 2024

This picture taken on April 14 ,2024, shows intercepted missiles that fired from Iran towards Israel, as seen over northern Israel. (Photo by Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images)

On Saturday and Sunday, Iranian forces launched approximately 350 missiles and drones toward Israel in retaliation for an alleged strike by Israeli forces on an Islamic Revolutionary Guard leader in Syria earlier this month. Israeli and allied air defense systems intercepted almost all of the missiles and drones.

Multiple videos of the attack have since emerged online, but not all are legitimate. One clip purporting to show the explosive impact of a ballistic missile in Israel is appearing on sites including Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).

In the video, a large explosion erupts in an urban area and the sound of high-speed projectiles can be heard. “The aftermath of Iranian ballisticmissiles in Israel,” reads the text in one clip with more than 2,600 likes on Facebook.

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But the video is not from recent Iranian attacks on Israel. It is actually footage of a Ukrainian attack on the Crimean city of Sevastopol in March 2024.

Identical videos of the strike began circulating online on March 23 following a Ukrainian missile attack on Sevastopol, including in a Russian Telegram group and on a Russian YouTube channel.

Identical frames from videos of alleged Iranian attack on Israel (left) and Ukrainian strike on Sevastopol (right)

According to Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, the attack resulted in damage to a number of commercial and residential buildings, and a 65-year-old man was killed by shrapnel. Ukrainian officials reported on March 24 that an oil depot and two landing ships had been struck in the attack.

“We can confirm that the [original video] is from a Ukrainian missile strike against Sevastopol on March 23,” Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told The Dispatch Fact Check. “This particular video was geolocated specifically to Sevastopol.”

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