Video of a drone attacking a Russian base is from a game

The whir of helicopter blades can be heard in a video that takes an aerial view of what’s described as a “Russian desert base.”

The footage shows the base and “infrastructure” hit by a “Bayraktar TB2 drone,” according to a May 23 Facebook post that is causing some confusion as social media users sift through content about the war in Ukraine. 

That’s because this isn’t real footage — it’s a snippet from a video game.  

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Searching for the title of the Facebook video online, we found the same footage on YouTube where it was clearly labeled as showing a recording of the video game Arma 3. 

The game is an ongoing source of misinformation as Facebook accounts share it in a way that could mislead people into thinking it shows actual combat between Russian and Ukrainian fighters. 

But that’s not the case, and we rate claims that this is real footage False.