Fake video claims Ukrainian refugees set fire to a house in Germany

A misleading video shared thousands of times on social media claims that Ukrainian refugees have burned down a home in Germany after attempting to burn a Russian flag. Euronews has fact-checked these claims.

More than 700,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine have been recorded in Germany up until mid-May according to Germany’s Central Register of Foreigners (AZR). And misinformation has followed them there.  

There have been continuous attempts online to discredit narratives about the war in Ukraine and the West’s role in taking in Ukrainian refugees. 

This misleading video in Russian falsely claims that German tabloid newspaper Bild published a video showing a house burning in Germany. 

The video then shows a clip of a woman crying, stating that this house was her mother’s and is now burned down. The caption alleges that Ukrainian refugees set the building on fire after attempting to burn a Russian flag.

The video has been shared in multiple languages including Chinese, Bulgarian and also in German. However, the Bild newspaper’s Deputy Editor-in-Chief posted on Twitter that they did not publish any such video. 

“The truth is: BILD never wrote this news report. This is a complete fake” stated Timo Lokoschat replying to a Twitter user on May 17 2022.

Furthermore, when using open-source tools and search engines – Euronews reverse searched for the video and found when it first appeared on the internet. 

The video of the burning house dates back to 2013, when a building caught fire in Walluf – almost 300 kilometres away from where Ukrainian refugees supposedly set fire to a house in the misleading post. 

Moreover, the footage of the woman crying also dates back to before the Ukraine war. That clip has been taken from an actual Bild news story, but it was first published in January 2021. In the report, the woman explains that her mother died of cancer and then her home burned down. 

Neither of the clips in this fake video have anything to do with Ukrainian refugees, showcasing yet another example of misinformation being spread online during times of conflict.