Tracking the Venezuelan-affiliated Oil Tanker 'Pursued' by American Maritime Authorities

Yi Ma

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Our team is verifying video footage and photographs posted earlier today that depict the aftermath of a reported vehicle-borne explosive blast that Russian officials state killed a senior soldier in Moscow.

Russian authorities confirmed that Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov was inside the vehicle that detonated and that he later died to his injuries. An investigation is under way.

Our starting point to verify the location of where the images were from relied on posts saying the blast happened on Yasenevaya Street in the southern district of the Russian capital.

Our analysis employed street-view imagery on digital map platforms and the local mapping service Yandex to corroborate the distinctive yellow colour of a adjacent apartment building captured in the footage.

Identifying additional structures, lamp-posts and the road configuration confirmed where the footage were captured.

We also checked that the videos were recent and that the images had not undergone digital alteration.