On December 27 and 28, the pro-government TV channel Imedi aired footage of a destroyed city while discussing Ukraine in its programs Euroanatomy (0:20) and Imedi’s Week (22:35). According to Imedi’s Week anchor Irakli Chikhladze, the video depicts “Ukraine’s most disturbing images.”
TV Imedi used animated footage to illustrate the consequences of the war in Ukraine – footage that does not reflect reality and has no connection to Ukraine.
To show the consequences of the war in Ukraine and a destroyed city, Imedi used animated footage alongside real footage. The website MotionArray publishes animated photos and video materials on various topics. It is on this website that a video titled “City Destroyed by War” is available, which Imedi used in its program and presented as real footage. On MotionArray, the video is clearly labeled as an animation.
The same website hosts several other animated videos of war-damaged cities, some of which are explicitly labeled “3D animation of a city destroyed by war.”
Similar footage is also available on Shutterstock, where the description states that the video represents “conceptual war footage.”
Reverse image searches do not confirm that the video was filmed in Ukraine. The video has not been distributed by Ukrainian media outlets or by local or international journalists, and it is found on a website where it is clearly labelled as an animation. Moreover, the video displays unnatural visuals and colors characteristic of animation.
Thus, TV channel Imedi uses animated video to present “Ukraine’s most disturbing images,” footage that does not reflect the real situation.
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