Truck Tows 'Flying Saucer' in Viral Video After Fireball Explodes Over Kyiv

An unknown object exploding in the sky over the Kyiv region of Ukraine has led to dozens of videos flooding social media, with many wondering about the nature of the phenomenon.

The incident led to air raid sirens being briefly activated in Ukraine's capital, causing panic among the locals traumatized by past Russian missile strikes on the city since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022.

The unexplained object, which local authorities initially suggested was a NASA satellite burning up on re-entry, a theory that was later dismissed by the Ukrainian government and NASA, has fueled a wave of speculation and misinformation on social media.

Among the "alien invasion" memes and movie references, several posts initially published on Telegram appeared to show footage of a tow truck transporting what looks like a flying saucer, with captions linking the vehicle to the fireball footage from hours earlier.

The video has since been shared on English-language accounts on Twitter, Reddit and elsewhere and has become the subject of rumor, jokes and speculation.

But after doing some digging into the context of the clip, Newsweek Misinformation Watch found no evidence that extraterrestrial technology was involved. In fact, the "object" in question is nothing more than a PR stunt, predating the fireball incident.

The "flying saucer" was a mock-up built and installed near the Kyiv Museum of Aviation in the spring of 2021 to draw attention and attract visitors, as was reported by local outlet Segodnya at the time.

"Eyewitnesses said that the installation has been near the museum for the second day. And it was installed simply to attract attention. It is interesting that what is holding the [saucer] is a tow truck," the report said.

Photos of the "UFO" being towed show the same truck that is seen in the video that resurfaced in the past two days.

While it's not clear whether the dummy "craft" was being transported again recently or if the old footage has been reshared amid the fireball speculation, it conclusively is not the "alien craft" that some have claimed.

As for the cause of the spectacular blast in the sky over Kyiv (and seen as far as Belarus), that is yet to be determined, though authorities have suggested that the likely cause was a meteor that broke up in the atmosphere.

"We cannot identify what it was exactly, but our assumption is that it was a meteorite," Igor Korniyenko, the deputy head of a control center at Ukraine's national space agency, said Thursday, according to Ukrainian news channel TSN.

"Our observation devices showed it was a powerful explosion. We recorded it and determined where it took place."

Ukraine Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat said the cause was like "some sort of celestial object—a meteor, part of a satellite or some other anomaly," as quoted by Anton Heraschenko, former deputy minister of internal affairs of Ukraine and current adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, on his official Telegram channel.