Does a video show the repatriation of a US soldier killed in Ukraine?

[ad_1] A video has been shared in Chinese language-language social media posts that declare it exhibits the physique of a U.S. soldier, who was killed whereas preventing in Ukraine, noticed at an American airport.

However the declare is fake. The video exhibits a ceremony devoted to a U.S. Air Corps personal killed in World Warfare II. The U.S. has mentioned it could help Ukraine by providing provides and coaching however not by sending American troops to struggle there.

The video was shared on X Nov. 9, 2024.

The one-minute and 38-second video exhibits six folks in what seems to be army uniform eradicating a casket coated by a U.S. flag from a aircraft and inserting it in a white hearse.

“That is what occurs when U.S.troopers die in Ukraine and are shipped again to the states,” the submit reads.

On-line customers claimed {that a} video of a coffin with an American flag draped atop it confirmed the stays of a U.S. soldier being “repatriated from the battlefields of Ukraine.” Comparable claims had been shared on X and Weibo, with some customers questioning if the U.S. had entered the conflict preventing for Ukraine.

However the declare is fake.

Non-profit honoring forgotten troopers

A mixed reverse picture search and key phrase searches discovered a video that exhibits comparable scenes as these within the social media clip.

The video was posted by Honoring Our Fallen, a non-governmental group that gives assist for the U.S. fallen and their relations.

Laura Herzog, founder and CEO of the Honoring Our Fallen, instructed AFCL that the troopers proven within the footage had been truly her group’s employees members.

Herzog famous that the ceremony captured within the video was devoted to a U.S. Air Corps personal killed in World Warfare II named Harry M. Seiff, not a soldier concerned within the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.

The Division of Protection, or DOD, notes in a press launch that Seiff died in a prisoner-of-war camp within the Philippines on Nov. 14, 1942, following his seize by Japanese forces that yr.

Seiff’s stays had lain buried within the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial for over 70 years as an unknown soldier earlier than being disinterred in 2018.

Scientists operating DNA exams then confirmed the id of the deceased and the physique was lastly interred on the Los Angeles Nationwide Cemetery on November 14, 2024.

The footage of the purported U.S. soldier from Ukraine being repatriated matches video and photographs launched by the non-profit group Honoring Our Fallen. The footage of the purported U.S. soldier from Ukraine being repatriated matches video and photographs launched by the non-profit group Honoring Our Fallen. No U.S. troops in Ukraine

Based on a White Home assertion launched following the signing of a bilateral safety settlement with Kyiv in the course of the 2024 G7 summit, the U.S. would help Ukraine by providing provides and coaching, “not by sending American troops to struggle in Ukraine.”

Further army help introduced by the DOD to Ukraine on Oct. 16 didn't embrace U.S. troops.

The protection division mentioned in September that the U.S. had dedicated roughly US$56.3 billion in safety help to Ukraine because the conflict started in February 2022.

However a listing of the varied types of U.S. help doesn't embrace troops from any department of the U.S. army amongst its objects.

Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.

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