Old visual of Russia's naval parade misrepresented as European countries deploying troops to Greenland

"Several European countries, including France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden, have begun deploying military personnel to Greenland at Denmark's request," reads the Indonesian-language Instagram post shared on January 17, 2026.

The attached video appears to show a formation of warships sailing in the open sea.

It circulated after several European countries announced on January 15 that they will send troops to Greenland along with other European nations, as US President Donald Trump ramped up threats to seize the Arctic island (archived link).

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Screenshot of the false post, taken on January 20, 2026, with a red X added by AFP

The modest military reinforcements -- 13 soldiers from Germany, for example -- are meant to prepare armed forces for future exercises in the Arctic, according to European defence sources (archived link).

Trump has pushed to gain control of Greenland, saying it is critical to US national security, and has threatened to impose tariffs on countries that oppose the plan (archived link).

He later said he had formed the "framework of a future deal" after a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte over the territory at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland and would not impose the tariffs, but gave few details about the purported framework or whether it met his demands for total US control over the Arctic island (archived link). 

The video has also spread on Facebook and TikTok, and comments indicate that many users believe the footage is genuine.

"Welcome to World War III, guys," one user commented, while another wrote, "Smart countries won't be Trump's slaves."

But the video appears to have been generated based on a photo of a Russian naval parade in 2019.

A combination of reverse image searches on Google using keyframes from the video and keyword searches led to a photo uploaded by the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) on July 28, 2019 showing warships in the same formation (archived link).

"Russian Navy sailors onboard the warships during the 'Russia Navy Day' parade in Kronstadt, outside St. Petersburg, Russia," the picture's caption reads. 

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Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) with a red X mark added by AFP and the original photo by the EPA (right)

A subsequent keyword search found a similar video uploaded by Euronews on the same day, showing a formation of Russian warships sailing together (archived link).

Further analysis using DeepFake-o-Meter, a tool designed to detect AI-generated content, indicates a 99.9 percent chance that the video was made with AI (archived link).

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Screenshot of the false post's DeepFake-o-meter analysis result

The clip also contains several visual inconsistencies, such as unnatural water waves produced by the movement of the ships, which are telltale signs of content created with the help of AI.

AFP has previously debunked another false claim based on AI content generated from a real photo.