Old video doesn’t show Kerch Bridge explosion
CLAIM: Video of a vehicle driving along the Kerch Bridge in daylight shows Saturday’s explosion on the span.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video has been online since at least early May and an Associated Press analysis of the clip revealed evidence that it was edited to feature an explosion. Two video analysis experts also told the AP that the video appeared to be manipulated.
THE FACTS: In the hours after Saturday’s explosion, which caused the partial collapse of the bridge and killed three people, social media users shared an old video they falsely claimed captured the blast.
The clip is recorded from inside a vehicle, looking through the windshield, as it drives along the Kerch Bridge, which links the Crimean Peninsula with Russia. Around seven seconds in, the sound of an explosion can be heard and the screen is filled with red and yellow, before the camera appears to fall, briefly showing the dashboard.
“#UkraineRussiaWar : The moment of the strike on #Crimea bridge. The strike took place at 06:00 AM,” reads one tweet sharing the clip, which was viewed more than 80,000 times.
But it does not show Saturday’s explosion. The same video can be found online as early as May 9, 2022. At the time, it circulated amid unfounded claims that Ukraine would attack the bridge that day, which is when Russia celebrates Victory Day, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
While the first part of the video does appear to show someone driving along the Kerch Bridge ― its distinctive white arches can be seen in the distance and its elevated railway section is visible on the left-hand side of the clip ― an AP analysis of the footage revealed signs the video was manipulated to create the explosion effect.
For example, before the yellow and red colors appear, a white overlay covers the entire video at the six-second mark. And at the seven-second mark, a video frame of the bridge with a supposed cloud of smoke in the distance is repeated.
Experts who analyzed the video agreed that it featured evidence of alteration.
Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, whose work focuses on digital forensics and misinformation, wrote in an email to the AP that his analysis of the video’s individual frames found two that were nearly identical. This would be “highly unlikely given the motion in the scene and car,” he noted.
“This is a tell-tale sign of video manipulation pointing to an almost certainly inauthentic video,” Farid wrote.
The audio in the video clip contained “clear traces of montage” combined from at least two different previous recordings, Catalin Grigoras, director of the National Center for Media Forensics at the University of Colorado Denver, wrote in an email to the AP.
“This video is inconsistent with an original,” Grigoras wrote. “It contains traces of both audio and video effects.”
Russian authorities said Saturday’s explosion was caused by a truck bomb, the AP reported. The country’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the blast caused seven railway cars carrying fuel to catch fire, resulting in the “partial collapse of two sections of the bridge.”
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called it a “terrorist act” masterminded by Ukrainian special services. And while some Ukrainian officials lauded the destruction, presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak called Putin’s accusation “too cynical even for Russia.”
___
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.