Russian propaganda spreads fake about 'act of sabotage' committed by Ukrainians in Romania

Propagandists used photos and videos of unrelated incidents to discredit Ukraine at international level

Russian Telegram channels and pro-Kremlin English-language media outlets and accounts on the social media platform X have recently spread information that Ukrainian partisans allegedly destroyed a fuel depot used by NATO's armed forces. This allegedly happened in the Romanian town of Bragadiru.

As "proof," the propagandists allegedly distributed photos and videos of a fire and a screenshot from a mapping service, on which its specific location was marked.

This is a fake. There was no incident involving the burning of a NATO fuel depot in the Romanian town of Bragadiru. The photo that purports to show a fire at a military facility concerns a completely different event. According to the Romanian media outlet Impactnews24, a private house was on fire in Bragadiru on July 31. The fire was caused by a short circuit.

In addition, the area in the video does not correspond to the one marked by the authors of the fake on the mapping service. In the video spread by the propagandists, you can see the hill in the background.

Using the Google Maps service, we checked the only possible location (from the side of the field. - ed.) from where the video could have been shot, and found out that there are no hills in this area, and the objects of an industrial zone differ significantly.

The Romanian Defense Ministry also denied allegations about the alleged fire at the fuel depot in Bragadiru and added that the video, distributed by the propagandists, was not made in Romania at all.

Fakes about the subversive activities of the "Ukrainian anti-war movement" have recently become more frequent. Their goal is to discredit Ukrainians and undermine the trust of Western partners in Ukraine. Through such fakes, Russian propaganda tries to manipulate public opinion in order to confirm its own narratives about Ukraine.

Earlier, Ukrinform refuted the fake about Ukrainians committing arson and blowing up a train with military equipment, two military warehouses and a gas terminal in Romania.

Dmytro Badrak