What we know about video allegedly showing captured US tank flying Russian and American flags
Days before the video started circulating, Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in an unsuccessful bid to secure a peace deal in the war in Ukraine.
RT said the footage showed a captured U.S. M113 armored personnel carrier near Mala Tochmacka, an embattled village in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The broadcaster claimed it had received the footage from a soldier in the field.
Though RT's report reflected verified details about which Russian forces were fighting near Mala Tochmacka, the video also displayed signs of the use of artificial intelligence.
Due to a lack of corroborating evidence, Snopes could not confirm the video's authenticity.
In August 2025, days after U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin's unsuccessful bid to end the war in Ukraine through a summit in Alaska, a video (archived) circulated online that claimed to authentically show a captured U.S. tank in Ukraine flying U.S. and Russian flags.
One version of the video, posted on a pro-Ukraine X account, had more than 690,000 views at the time of this writing.
The video also circulated on Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), Instagram (archived), Bluesky (archived) and TikTok (archived). Additionally, Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the video was authentic.
The video quickly drew ire from Ukrainian officials. Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, posted (archived) the video on Telegram, describing it as the work of "propagandists" and "the height of insolence." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Trump on Aug. 18, the date the video started circulating, to continue discussions about how to end the war.
Snopes could not independently verify where or when the video was recorded. The footage came from RT (archived), previously known as Russia Today, a broadcaster that the European Union suspended shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 for practices of "disinformation and information manipulation." RT said it got the footage from soldiers operating near Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, where fighting had been ongoing since 2022.
Snopes, which does not rely on anonymous sources, could not independently verify RT's source.
The footage also showed signs of possibly having been created or manipulated by artificial intelligence. The flags on the tank appeared unnaturally bright compared with the rest of the footage. In one clip, the Russian flag appeared to suddenly morph in and out of existence.
Given the lack of verifiable information about this video, we could not give it a rating at the time of this writing.
We reached out to Vlad Andritsa, the journalist who RT said initially received the footage from Russian soldiers in the field, for information about how he verified it and await a reply.
Morphing flags raised AI suspicions
Three clips in RT's 46-second video showed a tank, reportedly a captured U.S. M113 armored vehicle, flying Russian and U.S. flags. In the first clip, the vehicle drove along a paved road lined by electricity wires. The flags waved as they would be expected to if they were attached to a moving vehicle but appeared very bright compared with the surrounding green, gray and brown landscape.
In the second clip, the Russian flag suddenly appeared to morph in and out of existence. Frame-by-frame analysis of this clip (around time code 0:21) showed the Russian flag change shape from a white blob to a blue-and-white blob and back to a white blob. The American flag remained fully suspended throughout this time.
(Telegram @rt_russ)
That movement — the sudden shape-shifting of an element of a video — was a characteristic tell of other viral AI-generated videos. The RT video included a third clip that appeared to be a zoomed-out version of the second, where the Russian flag again appeared to morph in and out of existence.
RT post reflected real movements in war in Ukraine
Though Snopes could not independently verify the authenticity of the video, RT's accompanying report did contain authentic or plausible details about the ongoing war in Ukraine.
According to RT, the footage showed a captured M113 armored vehicle near Mala Tochmacka, Ukraine. The U.S. has supplied M113 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine since 2022.
RT said the footage showed a vehicle operated by the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, a regiment of the Russian ground forces originally from Chechnya, a semi-independent autonomous region of Russia.
Ukrainian officials and Russian war-focused Telegram channels (archived) said fighting occurred near Mala Tochmacka in early August, around a week before RT posted the video of the tank allegedly carrying the U.S. and Russian flags.
According to both the above information and geolocated footage published by Ukrainian (time code 0:34, archived) and Russian (time code 2:48) military channels, Ukrainian forces struck Russian armored vehicles near Mala Tochmacka on Aug. 10. However, none of this footage appeared to show the alleged M113 carrying the U.S. and Russian flags.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, a nonpartisan public-policy research organization documenting armed conflicts around the world, fighting near Mala Tochmacka continued until Aug. 18, the most recent report at the time of this writing. The ISW reported that the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment was involved in these clashes.
Given the above, it was not impossible that the footage authentically showed a recording by a Russian soldier from the 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of a captured U.S. tank operated by Russian soldiers near Mala Tochmacka, though Snopes could not independently verify this fact.
Ultimately, the video did not contain enough information for Snopes to determine its date or recording location. While Russian troops were no doubt present near Mala Tochmacka around the time the video circulated and could have captured a U.S.-donated M113 armored vehicle, several aspects of the video gave rise to suspicion. RT, a Russian broadcaster that the European Council suspended for its practice of "disinformation and information manipulation," spread the footage from an anonymous source. Additionally, the footage itself showed a Russian flag that appeared to disappear and reappear, a common sign of AI use.
DeepL.com provided translations from Russian and Ukrainian to English.
COLVIN, JILL, and MICHELLE L. PRICE. "For Trump and Putin, Handshakes on a Red Carpet and a Joint Limo Ride, Then an Abrupt Ending." AP News, 15 Aug. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/trump-putin-summit-greeting-adc0e52a159bbf21dd582e101b5257db.
CORBET, SYLVIE, et al. "Trump Begins Planning for Putin-Zelenskyy Meeting While Affirming US Help with Security Guarantees." AP News, 18 Aug. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/trump-putin-zelenskyy-russia-ukraine-war-d0ad768453210db23fe4b108f7b87135.
Council of the EU. "EU Imposes Sanctions on State-Owned Outlets RT/Russia Today and Sputnik's Broadcasting in the EU." Council of the European Union, March 2, 20222, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/03/02/eu-imposes-sanctions-on-state-owned-outlets-rtrussia-today-and-sputnik-s-broadcasting-in-the-eu/.
Harward, Christina, et al. "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 13, 2025." Institute for the Study of War, 13 Aug. 2025, https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-august-13-2025.
"M113 Family of Vehicles." BAE Systems, https://www.baesystems.com/en/product/m113-family-of-vehicles. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.
Malyasov, Dylan. "Vietnam-Era M113s Save Lives in Ukraine War." Defence Blog, 10 Jan. 2025, https://defence-blog.com/vietnam-era-m113s-save-lives-in-ukraine-war/.
Sobieski, Jessica, et al. "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 18, 2025." Institute for the Study of War, 18 Aug. 2025, https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-august-18-2025.
"Влад Андрица." Telegram, https://t.me/s/vandrytsa.
Командование Мотострелкового Полка Из Чечни Пытается Скрыть Саботаж Среди Военных в Украине. 14 Jun. 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20220614125803/https://www.kavkazr.com/a/komandovanie-motostrelkovogo-polka-iz-chechni-pytaetsya-skrytj-sabotazh-sredi-voennyh-v-ukraine/31859663.html.
"Рапортували, що закріпилися в тюрмі" — поблизу Оріхового три години відбивали штурм російської "броні". https://armyinform.com.ua/2025/08/13/raportuvaly-shho-zakripylysya-v-tyurmi-poblyzu-orihovogo-try-godyny-vidbyvaly-shturm-rosijskoyi-broni/. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.
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