Don't share these viral fake images of the 'Russian invasion' of Ukraine

When disaster strikes, people rush to document it to keep people around the world informed.

This has been no different in the last two days after Vladimir Putin announced he was sending military to Ukraine as a "peacekeeping mission" the west and Ukraine have said is "war".

Unfortunately, people also often purposely or mistakenly share fake news, videos and images that grab people's attention and when that happens it is important to debunk it.

This is exactly what has happened with thousands of people viewing a viral video purporting to show a montage of Russian planes invading Ukraine.

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The video splices together clips of explosions, planes flying overhead. We'd pop it below to let you see it for yourself, but it's not wise to do so, given that it's fake.

Independent fact-checkers Full Fact have determined that the video is false, and have sourced the clips back to old TikTok videos that predate Putin sending troops into the country.

In a blog, they said: "It is unclear where or when these explosions really took place, but they do not show the Russian invasion of Ukraine."

Meanwhile, Snopes has determined that another video of a 'Russian paratrooper' documenting his invasion of Ukraine is false.

The video, which shows a man parachuting onto land "has been online since at least 2015, well before the Russian attack on its neighbor country, and even before the rollout of TikTok," Snopes said.

The original 2015 video is below.

And the BBC have also found a number of either fake or old videos being circulated online.

Be careful with the information you see and share online, folks.

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