No, this video doesn’t show that ‘NATO has nuked Russia’
A video clip of an explosion has been shared thousands of times on X (formerly Twitter) alongside claims that “NATO has nuked Russia”.
The clip, which has also been shared on Facebook, shows what appears to be a series of large explosions taking place at night. One post on X claims: “NATO has nuked Russia in Tver Region, which borders Belarus, and the Baltic nations.
“Three explosions can be seen, two of them nuclear. These are not ammo dump explosions as reported.”
But we can find no evidence to indicate that the explosions shown in the video clips are the result of nuclear weapons, nor that this was a NATO operation.
The same footage was shared on YouTube by the Telegraph, which says it shows a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian military depot reportedly storing stocks of weapons.
The BBC reported that a partial evacuation has been ordered in the Tver region of Russia, after a fire broke out at the complex following the strike.
Reuters reported that the region’s governor, Igor Rudenya, said Ukrainian drones had been shot down and that some residents were being evacuated after a fire broke out in the area.
The news agency highlighted that Russian state media had stated in 2018 that it was building an arsenal for the storage of missiles, ammunition and explosives in the town of Toropets, where the explosions took place.
Full Fact could find no indication in any mainstream reporting that nuclear weapons were used in the attack, or any such claims from either Ukrainian or Russian official sources.
We can also find no evidence that NATO was involved in the strike. Reuters reported that a source working in the Ukrainian state security service had told them a warehouse holding missiles, guided bombs and ammunition had been destroyed in a drone attack.
While NATO has previously claimed Ukraine is on an “irreversible path to membership” of the alliance, the country is not currently a member.
False claims about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine are very common online, and we have checked them many times before.
For help verifying videos yourself, which is especially important during significant breaking news events, you can read our guide here.
