Social media users are sharing a video of a man smoking surrounded by body bags and claiming events related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are being faked.
Examples can be seen (here) and (here).
The text in one post reads: “Miracles in #Ukraine never cease!!! The supposed pile of dead bodies of civilians after an alleged Russian attack. But look one the dead has not managed to kick his smoking habit even in the afterlife!”
In the 12-second clip, a man is laying down with his body inside a black bag and his head and arm outside to smoke. Two other people appear to be arranging the body bags at the back of an orange truck outside a white building.
However, these images are not related to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The video was posted on TikTok by Vasya Ivanov, who identifies himself as an art director and production designer, on March 28, 2021, with a description translated to “Filming a Husky clip - Never ever #Husky #rapperhusky #backstage #how to shoot #shooting #backstage #recommendations #hochuvrek #rek #husky” (here).
The text refers to the music video by Russian rapper Хаски (“Husky”), which was posted on YouTube on Sept. 26, 2020. Vasya Ivanov is credited as production designer in the clip description.
The orange truck carrying the black bags, as well as the white building seen in the clip, are visible in the rapper’s video (graphic warning) (here) around the 2:24 mark.
In other TikTok updates, Ivanov shows how the bags are carried to the top of the same white building from the orange tow truck (here), (here).
VERDICT
False. The clip of a person smoking out of a body bag is from a Russian rapper’s music video.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
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