Fact Check: Old video of French troops in Afghanistan shared as footage of Russia-Ukraine war

We found that an old video of French troops was shared in connection with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, The video has no connection with the current crisis in Ukraine.

Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, a video has been making the rounds of social media with some dubious claims. Several people on Facebook shared said video with captions like, “Ukraine vs Russia army fight live war updated.”

The India Today Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) found this video has no connection with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. It is an old video of French troops fighting in Afghanistan.

The viral posts are archived here and here.

While investigating the claim, two things caught our notice. One, the terrain in the background of the video looks more like a desert. Two, the language the army personnel were speaking in sounded like French.

With the help of InVID and reverse image searches, we found the same video on YouTube, uploaded on August 5, 2021. The caption with this video read: “French foreign legion in heavy combat with Taliban in Afghanistan.”