: Metadata from some videos released around this time suggested they had been filmed days before their "live" broadcast, a tactic used to manufacture a sense of immediate crisis. Key Events on February 22
: Some videos purportedly showed Ukrainian saboteurs or shelling in Russian-held territory to provide a pretext for the invasion. video_2022-02-22_00-06-10.mp4
: This date saw a significant increase in shelling and military activity along the "line of contact" in the Donbas region. Videos circulating at this time often depicted explosions, night-time tracer fire, or the movement of Russian military convoys toward the Ukrainian border. : Metadata from some videos released around this
During this period, several videos were circulated by Russian state media and proxy forces that were later identified by Western intelligence and open-source investigators as staged "false flag" operations. Videos circulating at this time often depicted explosions,