Was "Russia's most advanced nuclear submarine' seen floating in Hawaii on December 26, 2022? No, that's not true: A social media post making the claim uses footage from a fictional TV show.
The story appeared in a post published on Facebook on December 26, 2022. It contained a video of what appeared to show a beach crowd surprisingly observing an unexpected arrival of a submarine. The caption said:
Russia's most advanced nuclear submarine is suddenly floating in the Hawaiian Sea
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:52:27 2022 UTC)
But the video does not show real-life events. It is a scene from the American TV show Hawaii Five-0. The IMDb (Internet Movie Database) description of the 25th episode of season 8 says:
The team discovers a Russian spy ring hiding on Oahu, Hawaii U.S.A. when one of their submarines appears off the coast.
The narrator's words discussing someone named Steve in the Facebook video are well-aligned with the plot of the TV series, which is centered around the main character Steve McGarrett leading a special task force in Hawaii.
The clip reused shots from one of the episode's trailers available on YouTube, horizontally flipping them and changing the frame's dimensions to avoid detection:
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:11:31 2022 UTC; YouTube screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:08:08 2022 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:15:37 2022 UTC; YouTube screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:16:33 2022 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:22:07 2022 UTC; YouTube screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:23:29 2022 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:27:58 2022; YouTube screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:27:45 2022 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
(Sources: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:33:23 2022 UTC; YouTube screenshot taken on Thu Dec 29 18:34:01 2022 UTC; composite image by Lead Stories)
Other discrepancies that give away the fictional nature of the clip include the red star on the submarine: That stopped being a government symbol upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union over three decades ago at the time of this writing. Since then, the Russian Federation has been using a different three-color flag and coat of arms. Additionally, the Russian Navy has its own St. Andrew's flag with two dark-blue lines crossing each other on a white background. For example, it can be seen in a video published on the official Kremlin website on December 29, 2022.
Another non-existent thing described in the video is the "Hawaiian army." In the U.S., different states do not have separate armies - the land service branch of the national military reports to the federal chain of command. That includes the Hawaii Army National Guard, a locally-based federal military reserve that can also support state forces.
Lead Stories fact checks about the Russia-Ukraine war can be found here.
