Old videos do not show Putin warning the US to stay out of the latest Gaza war

CLAIM: Two videos show Russian President Vladimir Putin warning the U.S. to “stay away” from the latest Gaza war.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Both videos are months-old clips of Putin speaking about the Russia-Ukraine war, not the conflict in the Middle East, which have been miscaptioned in English. One shows Putin speaking at a meeting of Russia’s human rights council in December 2022, the other at a World War II commemoration event in February 2023.

THE FACTS: On the third day of the latest conflict, which began with Hamas’ stunning weekend attack into southern Israeli towns, some on social media are sharing videos from months ago to falsely claim that Putin has warned the U.S. to refrain from helping the Jewish state.

Both videos show Putin speaking in Russian as English captions appear, supposedly translating his comments.

“America wants to Destroy israel as we destroy ukraine In past,” the captions on one video state. “I am warning America. Russia will help palestine and america can do nothing.” One TikTok post that shared the clip had received approximately 11,600 views as of Monday.

A caption on another video of Putin, filmed in a different location, similarly reads: “I am warning america to stay Away from palestine israel war.”

But both videos long predate the latest Israel-Hamas war and make no mention of Israel at all.

The first shows Putin at a meeting of Russia’s Human Rights Council in December 2022, where, amid discussions about the war in Ukraine, he responded to a question about the country’s potential use of nuclear weapons, as the AP reported at the time. The footage was featured by multiple other news outlets at the time with similar translations.

In the second, Putin is speaking at a February 2023 event marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II Soviet victory over Nazi German forces in the battle of Stalingrad. In his remarks, he compared this threat to Germany’s then-recent decision to supply Ukraine with tanks, the AP reported at the time. Several media outlets featured the footage in similar reports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Russia is “extremely concerned” by the “spiral of violence” in Israel. Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister and former ambassador to Israel and Egypt, told the state Tass agency Saturday that Moscow has been in touch with “all parties (of the conflict), including Arab countries” and was urging for “an immediate cease-fire and peace.”

The latest war began Saturday after a deadly incursion by Hamas militants into southern Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip. Nearly 1,600 people, from both sides, had been killed as of Monday. Thousands have been wounded.___This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.