Does a video authentically show a lightning strike during a nuclear blast at an Iranian nuclear facility during a U.S. bombing attack on June 22, 2025? No, that's not true: While Lead Stories cannot confirm whether the video is real or AI-generated, the same video was shared online at least two days before the U.S. attack on three nuclear facilities in Iran. The video also shows a daytime scene near a city, while the American bombings happened at night and far away from any urban areas.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared on the @EuromaidanPR account on X on June 22, 2025. The caption above the video read:
On June 22nd at exactly four in the morning Iran was bombed, we were told that the nuclear war had begun. Please pay attention to the Lightning!
This is the surest sign that the explosion was indeed nuclear...
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)
The claim that this video was recorded in the early hours of June 22, 2025, in Iran was immediately suspicious because it appeared to be captured during daylight. The claim that it was related to the U.S. bombings of three Iranian nuclear facilities was also doubtful since it shows a populated urban area, and none of the targeted facilities are near cities.
Lead Stories could not conclusively say the video was generated by artificial intelligence tools. In fact, Hive Moderation's testing tools concluded the video was not made by AI.
A Google reverse image search revealed that the video predated the U.S. bombing. The same video was posted (archived here) on YouTube on June 20, 2025, with a claim that it showed an Iranian missile hitting a hospital in Haifa, Israel.
This is what that post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)
