Fact Check: Did Russia Post Video Simulation of Nuclear Attack on US?

Russia has said it has been testing its retaliatory nuclear strike capability, as Moscow recently pulled out of a nuclear test ban treaty.

Reports came on the heels of a decision by Russia's upper parliament to revoke ratification of the landmark Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion" anywhere in the world.

In a clip shared on Twitter, one user claimed to have "visuals" demonstrating the effect of a Russian nuclear strike, showing massive destruction across U.S. cities and landscapes.

The Claim

A post on X by user @narrative_hole, on October 25, 2023, stated: "Visuals: Russian strategic nuclear forces drills involving a massive retaliatory counter strike in response to an enemy nuclear attack on the Russian federation."

The post, which garnered over 40,000 views, included a video of what looked like a cruise missile being fired from the sea, followed by destructive scenes of U.S. cities including New York and San Francisco.

The Facts

In October, the Kremlin said a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was fired from the northwestern Plesetsk Cosmodrome to a test site in Russia's far-eastern Kamchatka region.

Another Sineva ballistic missile was fired from a nuclear-powered submarine in the Barents Sea, and air-launched cruise missiles were test-fired from Tu-95MS long-range bombers.

However, while the news of drills has hit headlines recently, this video is by no means a serious visual representation of a nuclear drill by Russia. The video is pulled from a variety of television shows and movies.

One scene, of what appears to be a cluster bomb or a missile with multiple payloads, is taken from the early 2000s remake of Battlestar Galactica.

Footage of San Francisco's destruction was pulled from the 2015 movie Terminator Genisys. The destruction of New York City was depicted in the Nicolas Cage 2009 science-fiction thriller Knowing.

Other scenes of nuclear missiles launching from the sea and flying across the Earth's atmosphere were taken from two separate sections of 2011's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and the 2017 South Korean action thriller Steel Rain.

Although the videos are from fictitious sources, Russia's preparations simulating a nuclear retaliation have increased. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the country's recent drills involved delivering a "response to an enemy nuclear strike" and that Moscow was rehearsing its ability to deliver a "massive" nuclear strike.

Putin oversaw the nuclear drills via video link, footage published by the Russian Defense Ministry showed.

The Ruling

False.

While Russia has reportedly carried out nuclear retaliation exercises in the past month, the footage shared on Twitter is neither that nor a visual representation created by Moscow. They are all clips taken from various movies and television shows including Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Battlestar Galactica.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team