Music Video Falsely Shared Claiming US Media Showing Fake Dead Bodies of Ukraine Soldiers

A viral clip showing a man in a black body bag smoking is going viral with a claim that news media are showing fake dead bodies as real Ukrainian soldiers killed in Russian attacks.

The caption along with the video reads, “USA news channel are displaying several dead bodies in Ukraine. Look at the video closely; one dead body is smoking a cigarette.”

Facebook | Archive

FACT CHECK

Reverse image searches on them. We found the same video posted on Daily Motion website on 29 March 2021. 

In this video, we saw the name of the TikTok user (vasyaivanovdesigns) written on it. As TikTok is banned in India we searched for the same user on different social media platforms. We found a tweet in which Vasya Ivanov’s Vimeo profile was shared. 

We, then, looked out for Vasya Ivanov and found his Instagram  account. According to his bio, he is a production designer/art director. 

On his account, we found two posts, which show body bags similar to viral videos. One of them features the same building seen in the viral clip.

By searching the text in the caption – “Хаски – Никогда-нибудь” – we came to a Russian music video of a rapper by the name of Dmitry Nikolayevich whose stage name is Husky (Хаски)

The video is available on Youtube and Facebook. 

Though the shot of a man smoking in a body bag is not in the video, as it was taken behind the scenes, there are enough clues to deduct that the viral clip was taken during the production of this music video.

First, you can see the orange truck is present in both videos. Then there are body bags, the window, wall texture, and the underground ventilators, which all indicate that these are not real dead bodies. They are only filming a music video.

We then searched for “dead bodies in Husky music video” in Russian. We found out that last year in September too, this same music video had caused panic in Moscow after the photos of its shooting showing dead bodies hanging from a building went viral. 

Distressed by the images, many had complained to authorities about it. After which, the director of the video, Evgeny Bakirov, had to come forward to clarify the misunderstanding.

“The performance with “corpses” that frightened Muscovites at the hospital on Shchepkina Street (MONIKI) turned out to be the filming of a video by rapper Husky. Director Evgeny Bakirov told us about the work on the video. According to him, they just needed a beautiful wall to hang the mannequins. But Bakirov did not reveal the meaning of the idea. The video will be released in the second half of September,” reads the Russian description of the news video. (Google Translate)

Original News Video – YouTube

In September 2020, Russia’s television Network Ren Tv published a report about this music video. According to the report, locals were frightened to see the corpses hanging from the roof of a hospital. Later, producer Mikhail Marizov clarified those were not dead bodies but mannequins and film crew received all the permissions to create the clip.

CONCLUSION

Hence, Fact Crescendo found that the viral video is old and has no connection with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. The viral video is a clip from a music video and not a real incident.