A video of tanks being carried by railway in a snowy landscape was recorded in central Kansas. The clip, however, has been inaccurately described on social media as showing U.S. armaments in Poland.
An iteration on TikTok was watched at least 830,000 times (here). Other examples can be found on Twitter (here) (here) and Facebook (here) (here)
The miscaptioned footage circulated following an announcement from the Biden administration on Jan. 25 that the United States will supply Ukraine with 31 advanced M1 Abrams tanks, as reported by Reuters (here). According to the report, senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the decision said it will take months for the Abrams tanks to be delivered to Ukraine.
Reuters could not independently confirm when the footage was recorded, but it does not depict tanks in Poland.
The same clip was posted by British news agency SWNS on YouTube (here). The Jan. 26 post’s description states the clip was filmed on Jan. 24 in Kansas, “approximately one mile west of Gorham on Highway 40”.
Google Streetview imagery of a crossroads in “Hwy 40 and 400th Avenue” in Kansas corroborates the location of the clip (goo.gl/maps/1fHdMecWrv35qGU56), (ibb.co/YctdJ8c).
The earliest iteration Reuters could identify of the video was posted by Twitter user “@Ed_111_133” identified as “Eddie Johnson” on Jan. 24 (here)
Johnson told Reuters that he had captured the footage on Jan. 24 in Central Kansas.
In another tweet, Johnson wrote the footage was filmed in “Gorham. Old 40” (here). The user also shared another clip further showing a line of tanks in what appears to be the same road (here).
LtCol Garron J. Garn, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense, told Reuters that the tanks in the video “are not related to the Jan 25th announcement by Pres. Biden to commit M1 tanks to Ukraine” but could not confirm when the video was taken.
VERDICT
Miscaptioned. This clip was filmed in Kansas, not Poland, and has been described in media reports as filmed on Jan. 24, 2023.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here .
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.