CLAIM: Video shows Ukrainians burning down an Orthodox church in the village of Novopoltavka in Ukraine.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video is from 2013 and shows a Russian Orthodox church on fire in Ilyinka village in southern Russia.
THE FACTS: The video circulated widely on social media in recent days, with false claims that it shows Ukrainians setting fire to an Orthodox church in Novopoltavka, part of the country’s Mykolaiv region.
Social media accounts affiliated with the Russian government also fueled the false narrative.
“Another Orthodox church burned down in Ukraine,” stated a Facebook post from the Russian Embassy in London published on Friday, which was later deleted. “This time a cruel fate befell a church of the canonical UOC in the village of Novopoltavka. The footage shows people watching in horror at the burning church, which was set on fire by either security forces or dissenters,” the false post read.
The false claims also spread on Twitter and Telegram.
However, the video is a decade old and shows a church ablaze in Russia, not Ukraine.
A YouTube account posted the same video of the fire with a Russian caption that stated “burning church in Ilyinka” on Jan. 22, 2013, along with several other videos capturing...
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