Fact Check: Electric vehicle blows up in Uttar Pradesh? No, video shows car bomb blast in Crimea

Hyderabad: A video of a moving car exploding on the road is going viral with the claim that it shows an electric vehicle (EV) blast in Uttar Pradesh.

The viral video posted on Instagram garnered traction from netizens as it was shared with the caption, “Breaking News EV Car Blast in Uttar Pradesh.” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video shows a car bomb blast in Crimea, not an electric vehicle exploding in Uttar Pradesh.

We searched and found no trustworthy reports about similar videos showing EV cars exploding in Uttar Pradesh.

Using a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, we found a report about a car blast on a website called Antikor, based in Ukraine. It was published on November 19, 2024. The report featured a screenshot from the viral video titled, ‘The network published footage of the detonation in the occupied Sevastopol of the commander of the 41st Brigade of Russian missile boats’. (Archive)

According to Antikor, the video was reported by Russian media and showed a car blast that led to the death of the commander of the 41st Missile Brigade of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea fleet.

We also found the viral video uploaded to the verified YouTube channel of Daily Mail on December 17, 2024, with the title, ‘Russian Naval officer Valery Trankovsky is killed in car bomb assassination’. The description stated that the video showed the moment a Russian Navy officer was killed in a car bomb assassination executed by Ukraine in Crimea. The same video was uploaded to the Daily Mail’s website. (Archive)

“An official in Ukraine’s security services told the Ukrainian Pravda outlet that the agency had orchestrated the car bomb attack in the Russian-controlled port city of Sevastopol that killed Valery Trankovsky, the chief of staff of the 41st Missile Brigade of the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet,” the report stated.

The report also said the Russian Investigative Committee confirmed the attack without naming Trankovsky. Russian media reported that the explosion tore off Trankovsky’s legs and he died from blood loss. Trankovsky had reportedly been under surveillance for about a week before the blast, and the homemade explosive device was detonated remotely, reported The Guardian.

From these reports, NewsMeter concluded that the viral video showed the car bomb assassination of a Russian Naval officer on November 13, 2024, in Crimea. The video does not show an electric vehicle blast in Uttar Pradesh.

Therefore, the viral claim is false.