Debunked

Viral video falsely claims that Finland is sending tanks to Russian border

Issued on: 12/05/2022 - 18:17Modified: 13/05/2022 - 08:53

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, people across Finland have started to question the country’s neutral stance toward its neighbour, Russia. On May 12, the president and prime minister of Finland announced that the country would be applying to join NATO as soon as possible. Against this tense backdrop, a video has started circulating that some claim shows Finland sending tanks to its Russian border. © Observers

Text by: Aude Dejaifve

3 min

A viral video circulating on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube features footage that purportedly shows Finnish tanks headed for the Russian border. However, it turns out that the footage actually shows the transporting of tanks taking part in a military exercise in the western part of the country, far from the border with Russia.

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Internet users have been sharing a viral video that falsely claims Finland is sending tanks to its border with Russia, to the east.
In reality, the video footage shows tanks being transported by train to a military exercise currently wrapping up in the country's west.
Visual clues in the video enabled us to geolocate the scene, confirming that the train was actually travelling from east to west, away from Finland's border with Russia.

Fact check in detail

This video, which was posted in French on Facebook on May 4 and garnered 12,000 views, shows a train transporting a dozen tanks.

This is a screengrab of the video posted on Facebook on May 4. Those who shared it claimed that it showed tanks being sent by Finland to its border with Russia. © Observers

English-speaking users shared other versions of the video on Facebook (like this post in English from May 4) and Twitter (like this one posted on May 3) and YouTube (like this one, posted May 3).

In recent months, tensions have been escalating between Helsinki and Moscow. After the fall of the USSR, Finland did not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and remained officially neutral.

However, when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 of this year, public opinion in Finland swung towards joining NATO, especially as Finland shares a long border with Russia. On May 12, Finland finally announced that it would make its official request to join NATO on May 15.

Tanks transported as part of a military exercise

The Finnish army tweeted a response to the video on May 4.

“A video has been circulating online claiming to show tanks being moved to Finland's borders. This is not true. The tanks were being moved to the army mechanised exercise Arrow 22. The exercise takes place in Niinisalo and Säkylä. More info on our website,” the tweet read.

The Arrow 22 exercise was a military exercise carried out jointly by the United States, United Kingdom, Latvia and Estonia from May 2-13.

A few visual clues in the video help us confirm this. You can see a tower in the background. If you do an internet search for the words "Finland" and "tower", you’ll pull up images of the Näsinneula tower in Tampere, a town in western Finland. It looks just like the tower you see in the background.

The tower in the video (at left) looks like Näsinneula Tower (pictured at right). © Observers

The park in Tampere where the video was filmed. At the top are two screengrabs from the video. At the bottom is an aerial view of the location from Google Earth. © Observers

If you look up the tower in Tampere, a town in western Finland, on Google Maps and examine what is around it, you can find where the video was filmed – a set of train tracks alongside Törngren Park.

Looking at this location on Google Earth, you can see elements from the video— the railway bridge above the road, the train tracks, the brick chimney, the white and grey buildings and the vegetation.

Is is clear that the train is moving west, away from the border with Russia. The tanks were transferred to western Finland for a military exercise, not to the east where the country shares a long border with Russia.