Video of Refined Oil Storage Tank Falsely Shared as Russian Missile

Misbar’s team investigated the circulated claim and found it misleading. The video first appeared on TikTok in October 2021, a few months before the military operation in Ukraine. The video shows a red flag that has some writings in an Asian language. Misbar found photos of the same metal body in a TikTok video about a refined oil storage tank in China’s Lianyungang port. Misbar could not verify the exact date and location of when and where the video was taken. However, it is clear that the refined oil storage tank video was taken some time earlier than the war in Ukraine.

Refining oil is a process that involves the heating of crude oil in huge tanks until the oil reaches a very high temperature; this is called distillation. It ensures that heavy materials such as bitumen and lubricants remain at the bottom while gasoline and light gasses rise to the top.

The claim started to circulate against the backdrop of the ongoing Russian war on Ukraine. To be more precise, the claim was shared after Russian President Putin put his country’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert after accusing Western countries of taking a hostile stance towards Russia.

Translated by Ahmed N. A. Almassri