Fact Check: No, this video DOES NOT show Indian media faking deaths during the Russia-Ukraine war

 Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, a video has been circulating on social media with the claim that it shows Indian reporters faking the death of Ukrainians on camera.

In the viral video with an alleged 24 News logo, one can see a man purportedly speaking in Hindi about the difficulties faced by Indian students in Ukraine due to the war. "For the past three days, the Indian Embassy has been saying that they will get out. Every five minutes or so, there is an explosion here. Nobody from the Indian Embassy is listening to us. They are saying that we can leave the country at our own risk," the man can be allegedly heard saying.

Behind him, a camera person can be seen shooting rows of supposed dead people packed in body disposal bags. A few seconds into the video, one of these bags starts moving, and a person can be seen trying to come out of it. The camera person then runs to him and makes him lie back.The video was also circulated with the claim that the Ukrainians themselves were staging the deaths.

The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that the claim along with the video is false. The video in circulation was edited. The original video was from a protest against climate policy in Vienna, Austria. News 24 did not publish any such video.

AFWA probe

We performed a reverse search of the keyframes of the video in question and found a longer and clearer version of the same video uploaded on the verified YouTube channel of an Austria-based channel OE24.TV on February 4, 2022. The description of this video in German translates to, "Vienna: Demonstration against climate policy".

From the looks of it, the frame of the Austrian video was cropped from all four sides. Additionally, a News 24 logo and Hindi audio were added to it in the viral clip. The Hindi audio in the clip could have been picked up from any of the many recent Indian news reports on Indian students stuck in Ukraine.

OE24.TV had also carried the same video on its website. Around 29 seconds of the original video, we can also see people holding banners against the climate policy. The banners in German loosely translate to English as, "Climate Protection Act saves lives," and "Current climate policies don't."

ccording to the video, the reporter seen is Marvin Bergauer.

We checked Bergauer's social media handles and found a clarification note regarding the viral video on his Instagram story. He shared the same on his Facebook as well. In the note, the journalist confirmed that the video report was about climate policy in Austria and had nothing to do with the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Bergauer's clarification note in German loosely translates to, "A few weeks ago, a video in which I talk about a Fridays for Future Vienna protest went viral. According to a new study, there will be 49 climate deaths in Austria in the future. FFF participants expressed this symbolically by depicting themselves as corpses and lying on the ground. One of these 'corpses' wanted to stand up briefly while I was reporting."

He said that the Russian media was now sharing the video with the claim that this was proof that Russians were not as brutal as the "Western media" claimed. "It's beyond my comprehension how millions of people believe everything they see on social media without context," Bergauer wrote.

The video had earlier gone viral linking it to Covid-19 deaths and crisis actors in Germany.

It is thus clear that the video in question is from a protest demonstration in Vienna and has got nothing to do with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.