Does a video show HIMARS and Gepard military weaponry on a street in Romania heading to Moldova? No, that's not true: The footage was shot in November 2022 of a military rehearsal for the National Day Parade in Alba Iulia, Romania, approximately 566 miles from the border with Moldova. The Romanian government released a statement saying the footage is from the "training for the military ceremony organized to celebrate Romania's National Day," which was December 1, 2022.
The claim appeared in an article published by the Hal Turner Radio Show website on February 27, 2023 titled "ROMANIA PREPARES FOR WAR; TANKS & HIMARS ON THE STREETS" (archived here) which opened:
Army columns of Gepards and HIMARS Multiple-Launch-Rocket-Systems (MLRS) are on the streets inside Romania, apparently headed towards the Moldova...
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
ROMANIA PREPARES FOR WAR; TANKS & HIMARS ON THE STREETS
Army columns of Gepards and HIMARS Multiple-Launch-Rocket-Systems (MLRS) are on the streets inside Romania, apparently headed towards the Moldova...
The article cited this tweet posted with an 18-second video as the source for the false claim:
Romanian Army column of Gepards and a Himars
-- Tony (@Cyberspec1) February 27, 2023
Apparently headed towards the Moldovan border pic.twitter.com/rohwdboUPd
The Romanian government posted a statement on their official Facebook page on February 28, 2023 stating that the footage does not show a military column headed to the border of Moldova.
The translation offered on the Facebook post:
FAKE NEWS
Romanian anti-aircraft defense systems present in 2022 at the rehearsals for the Military Ceremony on the National Day of Romania, falsely presented as currently heading to the border with the Republic of Moldova.
We remind you that you can verify the veracity of such information, sensationalistic and panicking, by consulting official sources.
The video material used for the distribution of this topic on various online platforms, in which appear, among others, HIMARS and Gepard systems from Romanian military units, was made at the end of November 2022, in the center of Alba Iulia, on the occasion of training for the military ceremony organized to celebrate Romania's National Day, the Ministry of Defense states on Tuesday, in a statement.
"Falsely, with the obvious aim of inducing panic, the video material is presented, on February 27, 2023, as "the move of the Romanian air defense systems to the border with the Republic of Moldova, this morning", the statement reads.
Using Google Earth, Lead Stories determined that this screenshot shows the intersection with the gas station to the left and the red sign to the right that is visible in the video:
(Source: Google Earth screenshot taken on Tue Feb 28 20:43:21 2023 UTC)
The city of Alba Iulia, Romania, is approximately 566 miles from the border of Moldova, according to Google maps. The Romanian Journal published an article on February 28, 2023, describing the video as footage, "in which appear, among others, HIMARS and Gepard systems from Romanian military units, was made at the end of November 2022, in the center of Alba Iulia, on the occasion of training for the military ceremony organized to celebrate Romania's National Day, the Ministry of Defense states on Tuesday, in a statement.
This tweet from Ukrainian freelance journalist Euan MacDonald shows an image of the military parade with the HIMARS, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, and Gepards, which are self-propelled anti-aircraft weapons that are tank-like in appearance:
Video of military equipment in Romania circulating on social media is probably from National Day parade on Dec. 1. Second pic shows parade, with 3 HIMARS and Gepards behind. Location of video: 46.079285, 23.563932, Alba Iulia, west-central Romania.https://t.co/kHszeM9xnE pic.twitter.com/qfACUyH4hj
-- Euan MacDonald (@Euan_MacDonald) February 27, 2023
Romania borders Ukraine and Moldova, and Moldova has been in the news recently as "tensions are mounting" there because of the war in Ukraine.
Lead Stories has previously published debunks of claims made by Hal Turner here. Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the ongoing war in Ukraine can be found here.
