Fake Euronews Video Falsely Claimed Ukrainian Soldier Killed Three NATO Troops in Latvia

A video dressed up to look like a Euronews broadcast has been spreading online since mid-August with a claim that never happened: that a Ukrainian soldier opened fire during a NATO military exercise in Latvia, killing three servicemen before turning the gun on himself.

According to Euronews, the fabricated clip was posted to X on August 14, 2026, and racked up more than 2 million views. It borrowed Euronews' name and visual style to make the invented story look like it came from a legitimate news organization. It did not.

Euronews said no corresponding report exists anywhere on its website or official social accounts, and that web searches turned up zero credible news coverage of any such deaths. Cedar News reported the same core findings independently.

The one true detail

The fake video wasn't invented from nothing. It anchored itself to a real event: NATO's Baltic Trust 2026 exercise, held in Riga, Latvia, from August 3 to August 14, according to both Euronews and Cedar News. That exercise focused on training troops to detect and counter drones, unmanned aircraft systems that have become central to modern battlefield tactics.

That single real detail is what gave the fabrication its shape. By wrapping a false, violent claim around a genuine, verifiable NATO exercise, whoever made the video gave it a veneer of plausibility that a pure invention wouldn't have had.

Latvia's military pushed back directly

Latvia's National Armed Forces denied the shooting took place, posting a statement on its official X account on August 14, the same day the fake video surfaced. "Such an incident has not occurred, and the exercises are taking place without incident," the statement read, according to Euronews.

The Latvian military went further, explicitly framing it as an information operation. "We inform you that this is a coordinated disinformation campaign," the statement said, adding the hashtag "#RussiaAlwaysLies." Euronews reported the statement's language and hashtag directly. No independent forensic attribution tying the video to a specific government or group was cited in the available reporting.

Part of a pattern, not a one-off

Euronews said this isn't the first time its brand has been hijacked this way. During the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, a series of doctored Euronews-style videos falsely accused Ukrainian refugees and athletes of criminal behavior. One clip, viewed more than 114,000 times on X, falsely claimed Ukrainian refugees had robbed a Euronews film crew. Another falsely alleged Ukrainian fans vandalized cultural sites in Milan after skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified.

Euronews also reported that doctored clips have separately circulated on a pro-Russian Telegram channel using similar tactics, though the outlet's account of that specific case was cut short in available reporting.

What's actually established, and what isn't

Proven: the Baltic Trust 2026 exercise happened in Riga from August 3-14. Proven: no shooting of NATO servicemen occurred, per Latvia's Armed Forces and independent verification by Euronews. Proven: the video was not made or published by Euronews and used its likeness without authorization.

Not proven, at least not in what's been published: who specifically made the video, or a forensic link to any state actor. Latvia's military implied Russian involvement with its hashtag, but that's an accusation from an interested government, not an independently verified attribution.

The tactic itself is straightforward and cheap. Take a real, boring NATO training exercise, bolt on an invented mass-casualty event, wrap it in a trusted news brand's visuals, and let social platforms do the rest. Two million views on a single X post is the actual damage here, regardless of who's behind the camera.

No criminal investigation into the video's origin has been announced by Latvian authorities as of this reporting. Euronews has not indicated whether it plans legal action over the unauthorized use of its branding. Whether platforms hosting the clip take any action, and whether Latvian or NATO officials pursue formal attribution, remains an open question.