In fact, the video was most likely filmed in 2022, at the very beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when Ukrainians were indeed leaving the city en masse, evacuating families abroad or to areas of the country farther away from Russia and Belarus. There is no talk of any mass evacuation of Kharkiv now.
Netizens are spreading videos of a large flow of cars on the road, including driving in the oncoming lane, claiming that this is a mass evacuation of Kharkiv residents from the city amid «heavy damage to the power structure and increasing drone strikes.»
«After Kharkiv Mayor Terekhov’s statement that almost all critical infrastructure in the city has been destroyed, and amid constant problems with light and rumors that fighting for the city is about to begin, a mass exodus has begun from Kharkiv,» propaganda writes.
First of all, it is indicative that this video with statements about the mass evacuation from Kharkiv began to spread on Russian Telegram channels. At the same time, no other videos from other users appeared on the network, and journalists did not report on such an evacuation. A more detailed analysis of the video shows that the cars driving on the road have stickers on them. Ukrainians glued such sheets on cars with the inscriptions «Children», «People», «Evacuation», driving away from the fighting at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to identify themselves as civilians. There is also snow visible on the sides of the road, although the last two weeks in Ukraine, and Kharkiv in particular, have been quite warm, and there is no snow in the weather forecast archives.
Thus the video was most likely shot at the very beginning of the full-scale invasion. Many similar videos showing traffic jams of departing Ukrainians in February-March 2022 can be found online.
Russian propaganda has recently been actively spreading a disinformation narrative about the preparation of an offensive on Kharkiv, aimed at demoralizing the local population. At the same time, the propaganda spreads statements that the local residents are allegedly expecting «liberation from the Kyiv regime,» which will be provided by Russian troops. The Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (CCD) notes that such narratives are part of an enemy campaign called «propaganda of fear.»
«Russia has no resources for an offensive on Kharkiv. All their tales about readiness to encircle the city are designed for internal and external audiences, and are part of the ‘propaganda of fear’ campaign,» said the head of the CCD Andriy Kovalenko.
The information about the Russians’ readiness to attack Kharkiv was also denied by the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR). Andriy Yusov, a representative of the GUR, commented that it was a «Russian fake». «Nothing strategically new about the formation of strike groups has not happened. As for the threat of ‘here and now, tomorrow they will attack’ and ‘we must immediately run away and sow panic’, of course, this is the Russian fakes,» Yusov said.
Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov also commented on the information about the «mass flight» of citizens, saying that people do not run away from the city. «People are calmly working, people are shopping. There is no panic in the city,» Terekhov said.
Earlier StopFake debunked the fake that landlords in Lviv allegedly do not want to rent apartments to residents from the east of Ukraine.
