Did a video of a large crowd walking through the streets of a city show people fleeing Tel Aviv en masse in June 2025? No, that's not true: The clip was recorded in Russia. It showed an annual pilgrimage organized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on June 19, 2025. It read:
๐ฎ๐ฑ๐๐๐ฅA new exodus? People are leaving Tel Aviv in droves...from Telegram.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The post claimed that the video showed a mass exodus from Tel Aviv amid the June 2025 conflict between Israel and Iran (archived here). However, the blurry video showed an entirely different country: Russia.
The same footage was previously posted (archived here) on Facebook on June 8, 2025. It was accompanied by the following description:
โฆ๏ธ. ๐ฐ๐ฌ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐น๐ด๐ฟ๐ถ๐บ๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฉ๐ฒ๐น๐ถ๐ธ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐ธ๐ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฆ๐.๐ก๐ถ๐ฐ๐ต๐ผ๐น๐ฎ๐. This amazing pilgrimage, began in 1668 after the miraculous icon of St. Nicholas was found in 1383. (See comments) #Velikoretsky #OrthodoxFaith #Pilgrimage #SaintNicholas.
In 2025, June 8 was the final day of the annual five-day pilgrimage (archived here), which begins in Kirov -- a city in Russia that is almost 2,500 miles away from Tel Aviv (archived here).
A blue traffic sign in the background that is consistent with those in Russia further confirmed the location:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
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