Brecht Castel Profile picture
Jul 1 β€’ 18 tweets β€’ 9 min read
This photo collage got 22K likes on #Instagram: it shows a swimming pool 🏊 in #Kharkiv πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ before and after Russian shelling πŸ‡·πŸ‡Ί.

"Is this supposed to be the same place before and after?" πŸ€”

Let's find oud! πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡ 1/...

#OSINT πŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸ“Έ
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
We upload the image in Yandex. That search engine suggests that we are indeed seeing a swimming pool in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv πŸŸ₯.

Kharkiv is the second largest city in Ukraine, close to the Russian border and has been under attack since the beginning of the war. 2/...
On a Ukrainian website with info about swimming pools in Kharkiv, we found the same photo. βœ…

We also find an address: Alchevskyh Street 50 A. We search for that address on Google Maps and indeed we end up at the sports complex of the Polytechnic Institute. πŸ—ΊοΈ 3/...
On Maps we can find several pictures of the inside of the complex (left).

We can see a swimming pool πŸŠβ€β™€οΈ and a multipurpose hall πŸ€πŸ€Ό.

It seems to be the same swimming pool as in our collage (right) and the roof structure of the multipurpose hall also seems to match. πŸ€”4/...
We are looking for more footage of recent damage to sports infrastructure in Kharkiv. πŸ”Ž

That's how we ended up with this short clip on #YouTube: 5/...
We compare the bottom photo of the collage (left) with the video (right).

Visual elements match πŸŸ₯🟦🟨: we see the same place. βœ… 6/...
We also found a news report on Facebook, uploaded on 24 June.

Again, we compare this video (right) with the picture of the multipurpose hall we found on Google Maps (left).

Five πŸ€ rings πŸŸ₯, the roof structure 🟩 and the wood-coloured wall 🟨 match. ➑️ Same place. 7/...
πŸ‘†We can conclude that the sports complex of the Polytechnic Institute in Kharkiv was indeed damaged recently, moste likely by Russian missile attacks.

Is the swimming pool located on the same site? πŸ‘‡8/...
We compare Google Streeview at the sports complex (right) with the swimming pool from the photo collage (left): the window structures match. βœ… 9/...
A few dozen metres further down the street on Google Streetview (right) we recognise the damaged building from the TV report on Facebook (left).

(Over and over, compare visual clues from multiple sources to understand the situation. πŸ’―) 10/...
From the πŸ‘† info and the visible architecture in both photos, we can deduce that these are two adjacent sports halls in the same complex.

We can see this clearly on an aerial photo on Google Maps (right). The damaged sports hall 🟧 is located next to the πŸŠβ€β™€οΈ pool 🟦. 11/...
On 26 June, the governor of the #Kharkiv region published photos of the rocket impact on the sports complex on Telegram.

There is also one photo of the damage to the swimming pool 🟦.

We can see that there is damage, but the roof has not collapsed. 12/...
The local Kharkiv Times newspaper published an article on 24 June entitled 'Last night, Russian invaders almost destroyed the HPI sports complex': times.kharkiv.ua/ru/2022/06/24/…

In it we also find several photos of the swimming pool after the rocket impact. πŸ“Έ 13/...
We only see damage on the north side of the swimming pool, where the swimming pool 🟦 is adjacent to the multipurpose sports hall 🟧.

➑️ The limited damage to the swimming pool is therefore a consequence of the rocket impacts on the multipurpose sports hall. 14/...
CONCLUSION: Yes, this sports complex in Kharkiv was heavily damaged, most likely after a recent Russian missile attack.

However, the photo collage shows two different sports halls, a more accurate comparison would look like this:
What have we learned? πŸ‘©β€πŸ«

1) Comparing visual clues from multiple sources helps you understand what happened. πŸ‘οΈ
2) Aerial images or drone footage are πŸ₯‡to understand architecture. 🚁
3) Before/after collages can be a strong visual tool, but be careful when you make one. ⚠️ 16/..
You can read my full article with all sources used here (@Knack) for FREE. πŸ‘‡17/...

knack.be/factcheck/fact…
@Knack Did you learn something from this #OSINT for #FactChecking?

Follow me (@brechtcastel) and check out my channel on #YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCMBPt… πŸ™

Older 🧡🧡underneath this tweet: 18/END

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More from @brechtcastel

Jun 29
1/ Zin in een #podcast? πŸ”Š

In dit 🧡een overzicht van de journalistieke audio die ik maak. πŸ‘‡ Veel luisterplezier! 🎧 Image
2/ Met @lorevonck van @WerkgroepVerder ging ik op stap om te luisteren hoe nabestaanden omgaan met #zelfdoding. Dankzij @destandaard.

[Op zoek naar hulp? zelfmoord1813.be]

πŸ”Škerekewere-ds.github.io/assets/ds_19.0… Image
@lorevonck @WerkgroepVerder @destandaard 3/ Ook zelf ben ik nabestaande. Over mijn vader maakte ik de podcastreeks #Kerekewere met dank aan @destandaard en @pascaldecroos.

In afl. 1 hoor je Yvo, een computervriend van mijn vader.

[Op zoek naar hulp? zelfmoord1813.be]

πŸ”Š omny.fm/shows/kerekewe… Image
Read 8 tweets
Jun 20
11.8 M people have seen this video on #TikTok. 😲

A quiet scene at a beach πŸ–οΈ with a huge explosion in the background. πŸ”₯

What do we see? Investigate! πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡ 1/...

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸ“½οΈ
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
πŸ”ŠThe woman filming curses while a man seems to say "he almost choked".

The caption of the video is Π΄ΠΎΠ±Ρ€ΠΎ ΠΏΠΎΠΆΠ°Π»ΠΎΠ²Π°Ρ‚ΡŒ Π² БСрдянск, meaning "Welcome to Berdyansk".

Berdyansk is a port city in Ukraine. πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦

You can watch the video here: tiktok.com/@thdsml/video/…

2/...
The video raises speculation.

According to some YouTube users, the explosion is the work of Ukrainian resistance fighters. πŸͺ–

A Facebook post suggests that the video shows a "Russian military cargo ship being hit by Ukrainians". 🚒

What's true? πŸ€” 3/...
Read 24 tweets
Jun 16
We all have seen Ukrainian tractors πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ dragging Russian tanks πŸ‡·πŸ‡Ί.

Where do they go? πŸ€”

We traced the β€œV5” in this #TikTok. It reveals France πŸ‡«πŸ‡· breaking the arms embargo against Russia.

Investigate! πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡ 1/…

#OSINTπŸ”Ž
#Verification πŸ“½οΈ
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐 Image
The TikTok video with this BMD-4, a landing combat vehicle, was shot west of Kyiv.

@sammy7000 from @GeoConfirmed found the location with Google Streetview. πŸ“βœ…

How? πŸ“ΊπŸ‘‡2/…
@sammy7000 @GeoConfirmed The tractor with the β€œV5” drove away from the besieged towns of #Irpin and #Bucha in a southerly direction.

Russian vehicles with a β€œV” entered Ukraine from Belarus and fought around Irpin and Bucha.

You can check on this map from @Cen4infoRes . 3/…

maphub.net/Cen4infoRes/ru…
Read 20 tweets
Jun 16
1/ I'm glad this important 🧡 on the danger of #OSINT is well shared. πŸ” πŸ’ͺ

Before I start a second thread on our investigation I have to thank a few people for production! 😍 πŸ‘‡
2/ @amra_dorjbayar and his team at @vrtnws made our investigation (which took over 1,5 months with an international team) into a 5 min. video.

Impressive work. πŸ“Ί
vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2022…
@amra_dorjbayar @vrtnws 3/ @Techjournalisto made some nice infographics of difficult but crucial parts of our investigation like this #geolocation πŸ‘‡ or the #cryptocurrency analysis. πŸ‘Œ

You see how the 1+1 report (above), the sattelite imagery (middle) and old pictures found on Google (below) match. βœ…
Read 5 tweets
Jun 15
A Russian missile πŸ‡·πŸ‡Ί killed at least three Ukrainian citizens πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ on April 16 in Kyiv.

This was NO ordinary attack: it was initiated by volunteers using #OSINT πŸ”Ž.

Investigation on ☠️ KILLER COORDINATES πŸ“

πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡ 1/…

#Verification πŸ“ΈπŸŽ₯
#GeoLocation 🌍
#HowToOSINT 🧐
This missile strike in the east of Kyiv almost completely destroyed a warehouse.

Satellite imagery from @planet shows how the surrounding buildings were not damaged, indicating a precision bombing. 2/…
@planet πŸ‡·πŸ‡Ί The spokesman of the Russian army, Igor Konashenkov, stated that β€œa high-precision long-range aerial weapon had destroyed the production building of a tank factory in Kyiv (...)”. 3/…
Read 26 tweets

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