This footage doesn’t prove Ukraine is ‘staged fake war crimes’

Published on: 08/19/2022 – 16:32 Since August 12, a video showing behind the scenes of a shooting has been shared on social networks by accounts claiming that it proves that Ukraine is staging fake war crimes in order to accuse the Russian army. The Observateurs editorial staff identified this video: it actually shows the shooting of the film “Region of Heroes”, which is scheduled for release in the fall of 2022, and which tells the story of the first weeks of the Russian invasion in the kyiv region. . The verification in brief Since August 12, several French and English Twitter accounts have been sharing a video showing a filming in front of ruined buildings. According to these accounts, these images would prove that the Ukrainian government is “staged false war crimes” in order to accuse the Russian army. In reality, these images show the shooting of a Ukrainian film in production which will tell, in five stories, the first weeks of the war in the Kiev region. The detail of the verification“If the atrocities committed by the Russian military against civilians do not exist, they have to be invented”. Like this sentence posted on Twitter on August 16, 2022, several social media users have been claiming for the past few days that the Ukrainian government is using “staging” to invent crimes committed against civilians by the Russian army. . They want proof of this in a video on which we see a film crew making a scene showing several people fleeing in front of ruined buildings. Screenshot of one of the tweets, here published on August 16, 2022, which broadcasts this video shot at Gostomel. © Observers But what do these images, which have accumulated more than two million views, really show? To find out, you have to go to the TikTok account @yarikfors whose name is indicated on this video. We find the same video there, published on August 8, 2022. Except that the caption of this publication indicates that it is a filming carried out in the city of Gostomel. Contacted by the American press agency Associated Press, Yaroslav Forsik, the author of this video, explains that the filming in question is not a “staging of false crimes attributed to the Russian army”. He actually filmed these images during the production of the film “Region of Heroes” for which he indicates to be assistant in charge of the casting. According to the description published on the official Facebook page of the film, this project announced on July 27 “will return in images to five authentic stories of people who have lived through hell in the kyiv region”. The film, written by Aleks Komarovskii and directed by Arthur Lerman, is produced by Ukrainian company IDEAFILMS. However, on its Instagram page, this production company published photographs taken during the filming of “Region of Heroes”. On these images, we find the same decor present on the video which has been circulating for a few days on social networks. The explanation given by Yaroslav Forsik is therefore well confirmed: this video does not show the staging of false crimes with the aim of then attributing them to the Russian army, but the shooting of “Region of Heroes”, a film which tells about the first weeks of the Russian invasion in the kyiv region.