Is that Darth Invader? Israeli TV channel unwittingly runs 'live footage' from Ukraine... showing a crash-landed TIE fighter from Star Wars
An Israeli TV news channel has run 'live footage' of Russia's invasion of Ukraine featuring a crash-landed TIE fighter from Star Wars.
The clip even shows stormtroopers standing beside the Imperial aircraft on a snowy road.
An investigation at Channel 13 has been launched and the editor has been suspended after the video was aired during a montage of destruction in Ukraine.
An Israeli TV news channel has run 'live footage' of Russia's invasion of Ukraine featuring a crash-landed TIE fighter from Star Wars
The clip was originally an advert produced by Disney and Lucasfilm in 2014 to promote a new Star Wars channel on Sky Deutschland.
It shows the stormtroopers surveying the crashed starfighter on a German autobahn while cars zoom past.
The original caption said: 'Warning: Unsecured crash on the A3. Please turn right and not overtake!'
It is believed the video started circulating on the messaging app Telegram after the Russian invasion, duping people into believing it showed footage from the war.
Ukraine has warned about disinformation being shared online, saying Russia is preparing an online campaign to suggest senior military and political figures have surrendered.
The clip even shows stormtroopers standing beside the Imperial aircraft on a snowy road
An investigation at Channel 13 has been launched and the editor has been suspended after the video was aired during a montage of destruction in Ukraine
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that the campaign will include fake documents and doctored footage to shift the narrative around Russia's thus far unsuccessful attempts to topple Ukraine's top brass.
'To ''confirm'' this fake information, seemingly signed ''documents'', as well as fake, edited videos will be distributed,' Reznikov said in an online statement, before posting a similar message on Twitter.
Reznikov assured that the Ukrainian leadership remains in Kyiv despite the Russian onslaught, declaring: 'No surrender! Only victory!'
YouTube and Facebook have banned Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik's channels across Europe, after Facebook and Twitter announced over the weekend that it had blocked a set of pro-Russian fake accounts and hacked profiles sharing anti-Ukrainian messages on social media.
The EU has also introduced a ban on RT and Sputnik's channels, and levied targeted sanctions against key individuals thought to be involved in Russia's propaganda machine, including editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya Margarita Simonyan.
The BBC said it will continue efforts to make sure people in Russia have access to its news following reports that viewers are no able to access its Russian-language website service
Meanwhile, Russia's state communications regulator Roskomnadzor hit out at social media giant Meta - parent company of Facebook and Instagram - and Twitter for being complicit in spreading what it said were fake posts about what it described as Russia's 'special operation' in Ukraine.
Russia has also announced it will limit access to the BBC website.
Access to websites of the BBC, the independent news website Meduza, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and the Russian-language website of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Svoboda, were 'limited' by Roskomnadzor following a request from prosecutors.
The agency said that in each case, the prosecutors' request was filed on February 24, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his attack on Ukraine.
German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported that the BBC site was not working within Russia.
However, BBC Russia said the domain https://bbc.com has not been added to the country's registry of banned sites.
The BBC said it will continue efforts to make sure people in Russia have access to its news output following reports that its Russian Service website has been blocked in the country.
Vladimir Putin is stepping up his propaganda campaign and is preparing to claim Ukraine has surrendered, officials say
A BBC spokesman said: 'Access to accurate, independent information is a fundamental human right which should not be denied to the people of Russia, millions of whom rely on BBC News every week.
'We will continue our efforts to make BBC News available in Russia, and across the rest of the world.'
Russia is also stepping up its propaganda machine at home, even targeting children using a child star.
In the video obtained by The Daily Telegraph from the Ministry of Education, 12-year-old singing prodigy Sofia Khomenko tells child viewers 'we are going to have a lesson about world peace'.
She is joined by two male presenters who explain the truth behind the events in Ukraine, at least from the ministry of education's point of view.
Denis Polunchukov, the main presenter from the ministry, explained that many images circulating the web about the war in Ukraine are in fact from different conflicts. 
The 12-year-old singing prodigy Sofia Khomenko (pictured left), sits next to ministry of education presenter Denis Polunchukov (pictured right) in a Kremlin propaganda video
The video was titled 'A lesson about world peace' and taught children about how Putin's 'special operation' in Ukraine were protecting Russians from Nazis
Some images are even from computer games, he added, warning about the dangers of believing photos shared on social media.
The Kremlin has in the past used video game footage to claim the US was supporting ISIS in the Middle East, shortly before Russian troops entered the Syrian Civil War in 2017.
Miss Khomenko asked bewildered questions to the two presenters, who assured her with recent-history lessons on how Nazis attacked Russian speakers and police during riots in Ukraine - a reference to the 2014 Maidan Revolution.
The attacks forced Russia to intervene in 2014, said the presenters, justifying the 2022 invasion by alleging that women and children in eastern Ukraine needed protection.
Polunchukov provided claims of rockets hitting a kindergarten, a column of tanks breaking down, or planes being shot out of the sky, as examples of misinformation on social media.
The video portrayed NATO as the aggressor, and the United States as a warmonger, according to the Telegraph.
He concluded by facing the camera, and telling the children directly:
'You are the heirs of our great country.'
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