Video of a beach party in Kyiv is being used to raise doubt around the war in Ukraine

The video was originally posted Sunday on TikTok by a user who goes by zhadyft

Kyiv (AP) - A video showing a beach club in Kyiv suggests the war in Ukraine is 'fake' but it doesn’t prove the war is fictitious.

CLAIM: A video showing a beach club in Kyiv proves the war in Ukraine is “fake.”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video does show partygoers at a beach club in Kyiv, but it doesn’t prove the war is fictitious. The front line of the war is in the eastern part of the country, far from Ukraine’s capital city. But that has not spared the capital, which has regularly been attacked by Russia with missiles and drones.

THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing a video of young people partying by a pool in Kyiv to downplay the impact of Russia’s invasion, going so far in some posts to suggest the war isn’t real.

“The war in Ukraine is FAKE,” reads a post sharing the video on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “How are your US taxpayer money is working out for the war in Ukraine? Footage from a beach club in Kiev during the war,” reads another post on X with the same video.

While the video was taken recently at a beach club in Kyiv, it’s not proof that the war is “fake.”

The video was originally posted Sunday on TikTok by a user who goes by zhadyft. Reached by The Associated Press, the user, who was also identified on the account as Edward, confirmed that he took the video. He did not provide his full name.

He later posted on X when he realized his video was being used to misrepresent the situation around the war in Ukraine.

“I am the original author that made this video on my TikTok page and I am only showing that people in Ukraine can live a normal life thanks to all the air defense systems that we have received from USA, Germany etc,” reads the post on X.

He also posted a new video on TikTok, saying he wanted to show that in times of war people can still live and have the “ability to enjoy life.”

“I want to emphasize that I support Ukraine, and that it is very disheartening to witness so much hate from foreigners, just because some people in Ukraine in those videos are enjoying their time,” Edward said in the video.

The video was taken at Fifty Beach Club in Kyiv. Multiple Instagram accounts that shared photos and tagged the club match the location of the pool in the video.

While removed from the worst of the fighting, Kyiv has not been spared. For example, Ukrainian officials said their air defenses shot down 20 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia mostly at the Kyiv region in July. Wreckage fell on four districts of the capital, wounding two people and destroying several homes.

In May, Russia launched dozens of drones and missiles at the city every night, forcing residents to spend the night in shelters. Other cities have come under attack as well.

Russian ballistic missiles slammed into an apartment complex and a university building in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown on July 31, killing six people and wounding 75 others as the blasts trapped residents beneath rubble, Ukrainian officials said. The dead included a 10-year-old girl and her mother, according to Zelenskyy.

Closer to the fighting, Ukrainian authorities on Thursday ordered a mandatory evacuation of nearly 12,000 civilians from 37 towns and villages in the eastern Kharkiv region, which is more than 400 kilometers away from Kyiv.

The U.S. has sent money to Ukraine, and this Thursday the AP reported that Biden plans to ask Congress to provide more than $13 billion in emergency aid to the country to help sustain its ongoing counteroffensive.