Old photos resurface with false claim that they show British ships 'bombed in Ukraine'
- Published on August 4, 2023 at 09:08
- Updated on August 7, 2023 at 05:56
- 4 min read
- By Tommy WANG, AFP Hong Kong
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"In the early morning hours of July 16, the Russian air force struck an arms depot in the Ukrainian port of Odesa," reads a post in simplified Chinese published on July 17 on Zhihu, an Internet forum based in China.
"Two British cargo ships five kilometres away from it were attacked," the post continues.
The post surfaced after Russia refused to renew an agreement that allowed Ukraine to export grains through the port.
Ukraine's military accused Russia of striking the port and damaging facilities on July 18, 2023 hours after the agreement expired, according to an AFP report (archived link).
The photos were also shared on Twitter -- which is being rebranded as "X" -- Douyin and Chinese social media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat and Xiaohongshu along with a similar claim. The claims and the pictures were also posted on Chinese news aggregator sites Toutiao, NetEase and Sina.
However, the pictures in fact predate Russia's invasion of Ukraine. One of the pictures in the misleading post was taken in Libya in 2020 while the other shows the aftermath of a fire at an Indonesian port in 2019.
Libyan attacks on the port of Tripoli
A combination of keyword and reverse image searches found one of the photos was shared on Twitter in February 2020 (archived link).
The post was published as Alarabiya News reported on February 18, 2020 that the Libyan National Army attacked a cargo ship carrying ammunition and weapons coming from Turkey at the port of Tripoli on the northwestern coast of Libya (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the false posts (left) and the original photo published on Twitter on February 18, 2020 (right):
An analysis of the photo in the misleading social media posts also shows corresponding landmarks around the port of Tripoli, such as Tripoli Tower and Bulayla Tower (archived links here and here).
Below is a screengrab comparison of the corresponding locations as seen on Google Earth (left and middle) and the original Twitter photo (right), with the matching landmarks highlighted by AFP:
Buildings with exterior white walls seen in the front of the photo of the false posts also match buildings seen in photos and satellite views available on Google Earth and Google Maps.
Below is a screengrab comparison of the buildings as seen on Google Earth (left), Google Street View (middle) and in the misleading post (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP:
Fire burning in Indonesia
A reverse image search on Google revealed the second photo in the misleading post was published by the Indonesian news agency Antara News on February 23, 2019 (archived link).
The caption of the photo -- translated from Indonesian -- reads: "Firefighters try to extinguish the fire burning fishing boats at Muara Baru port, Jakarta, Saturday (23/2/2019)."
The fire destroyed dozens of vessels and injured three people, according to a report in The Jakarta Post published on February 24, 2019 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the photo shared in the misleading posts (left) and the photo published by Antara News (right):
Meanwhile, another false claim circulating in South Africa shared a video featuring three different clips (archived here, here and here) that actually showed a deadly blast that rocked Beirut in Lebanon in August 2020.
AFP found no credible reports of any Russia-led missile attacks on British cargo ships in Ukraine in July 2023.
August 7, 2023 This article was amended to add details of a post from South Africa making the same false claim with a video of the Beirut blast in 2020
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