In a video circulated on social media, a Ukrainian fighter jet displays unmatched aerial skill as it weaves around unending salvos of bullets and anti-aircraft fire.
The pilot banks against the wind as tracer rounds narrowly miss. The jet pulls a hard right as surface-to-air missiles from the battery below fire round after round at the fighter’s silhouette against the Black Sea’s dusk skies.
“Breaking News” scrolls along the bottom of the screen as the Ukrainian jet fires flares and tucks and rolls in the wake of seemingly endless SAM barrages and streams of high-caliber machine-gun fire before finally exploding in a ball of flame before the pilot’s chute becomes visible against the low light of the horizon.
The comments on the video, which garnered almost a million views, range from outrage and shock to questioning the veracity of its origins. Users were right to call it out. The footage came from Arma 3, an open-world combat simulator for PC that’s based in the fictional world of Livonia. The 2013 video game released by Czech company Bohemia Interactive pits NATO countries — whose global influence is declining — against an alliance of China and Iran in the near future of 2030. It’s one of several examples of game footage touted as real news recently.
Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Geopolitics, Media

















