The claim

A video shared countless times claims that a newly delivered Leopard 2 tank was allegedly stuck in the mud in Ukraine or even captured by the Russian army.

Our conclusion

The tank shown in the video is not the Leopard 2, but a Swedish Stridsvagn STRV-122. The image and video material came from April 2022.

Example of false claim on Twitter “Leopard 2 tank stuck in Ukrainian mud”

Screenshot: Twitter / March 6, 2023 / The claim: "Leopardo 2 is stuck in Ukrainian mud. It is not known when the video was taken."
Screenshot: Twitter / March 6, 2023 / The claim: “Leopardo 2 is stuck in Ukrainian mud. “It is not known when the video was taken.”

This is not the first time that misinformation regarding the Leopard tanks has been circulating. Among other things, we reported on February 28, 2023 on the claim that Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group destroyed the first Leopard tank delivered by Germany in Ukraine on February 26, 2023. This turned out to be untrue . We uncovered another false report on March 9, 2023, in which “photo evidence” was supposed to prove that the first German Leopard tanks delivered to Ukraine had already been destroyed and captured by Russians. This claim also turned out to be unfounded .


EuroNews’ social media team “The Cube” has uncovered the truth behind the incident.

Upon closer inspection, one realizes that the tank in question is by no means a Leopard 2 . The original image and video material was published on Instagram on April 28, 2022 , well before Germany's commitment to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. In fact, the military vehicle is a Stridsvagn STRV-122, a Swedish tank based on the Leopard 2. The Instagram account is owned by the “Wartofta stridsvagnskompani” (Wartofta Tank Company) from the “Skaraborgs” Regiment, a training unit of the Swedish Armed Forces.

Through geolocation, social media experts were also able to determine that the unfortunate incident occurred near Slivakra in southern Sweden, not far from the Swedish city of Malmö.

As it turns out, the distributed video has no connection in time or location to the current conflict in Ukraine. In fact, delivery of the first Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine began only in March 2023.

Fact checking video from The Cube team


Note: This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication
.
The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic.