Video shows Russian submarines firing at Ukraine, not an Iranian missile attack on Israel
- Published on June 25, 2025 at 17:14
- 3 min read
- By AFP Middle East & North Africa, AFP Nigeria
- Translation and adaptation Oluseyi AWOJULUGBE
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“Breaking news: Iran could carry out nuclear test today - local press,” reads the Facebook post published on June 13, 2025.
“In addition, after several waves of missile strikes from the outside, the Israeli army allowed the citizens to leave the shelters, but recommended them to stay nearby.”
“Iran's foreign minister said Tehran was negotiating with the United States, but Israeli strikes had forced the country to 'leave the diplomatic route',” the post continues. “Video 1 - Missile fired from an Iranian submarine. Video 2 - Fire in the financial center of Tel-Aviv (sic).”
The video attached to the post shows missiles being launched from the sea at night and has a Euronews logo in the top right corner.
The video went viral on social media after Israel fired missiles at Iranian nuclear and military facilities on June 13, 2025, killing several top officials and prompting a counterattack by Iran (archived here and here).
Sirens sounded across Israel as smoke rose in Tel Aviv, the largest city in central Israel, shortly after residents were told to head to shelters.
The Israeli military said at least two waves of Iranian missiles were launched. At the same time, Tehran announced that it targeted “dozens of targets” and “military bases and infrastructure”, including a hospital (archived here and here).
During a Security Council meeting, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Iravani, announced that the Israeli strikes on Iran killed 78 people, including senior military commanders, and injured more than 320 others (archived here).
However, the video does not show a recent Iranian missile strike on Israel.
Russian missile strike
A reverse image search of the keyframes of the video revealed it was published by Euronews on March 26, 2022 (archived here). AFP was credited for the footage.
According to the report, the video showed Russian missiles being launched from the Black Sea towards Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry reportedly said the missiles fired targeted some Ukrainian armed forces infrastructure bases in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine, adding that the Kalibr missiles destroyed a weapons and ammunition depot in the Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, on March 25, 2022.
Other news outlets (here and here) published the same footage, also crediting AFP and citing Russia’s defence ministry (archived here and here).
AFP’s caption with the video confirmed Russia launched a “salvo” of Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea “at Ukrainian Armed Forces infrastructure in Zhytomyr region of Ukraine”.
AFP has fact-checked more mis/disinformation on the Iran-Israel war here.
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