Context: On Jan. 9, 2026, Cyclone Ully slammed Belarus with heavy winds and snow, bringing transportation to a standstill. Mogilev bore the brunt of the storm, receiving more than half its monthly average precipitation in just 12 hours. The Ministry of Internal Affairs deployed heavy all-terrain vehicles and armored personnel carriers to clear the roads, supported by thousands of volunteers. This winter has seen heavy snowfall across most of Europe.
On Jan. 9, 2026, the Belarusian silovik Telegram channel posted a report detailing the successful efforts of Belarusian agencies to combat the aftermath of the storm.
"It has begun: heavy armored vehicles, including APCs and AFVs, are hitting the streets of Belarusian cities to help clear the path after the heavy snowfall. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations are on high alert. Total legends, basically. In Minsk, they are even cleaning off snow-covered cars just like in the video. Just don’t show this to the Europeans; they’ll have a heart attack," the post reads.
The post included a video presented as footage of snow removal in Belarus. It shows a modern tractor clearing snow from parked cars.
In the comments, Belarusians and Russians expressed surprise at the machinery, noting they had never seen anything like it on their streets. "One reader wrote: 'Nothing but Mercedes cars, and all of them without license plates.'" "'Either this is AI, or it isn’t Belarus,'"
The Weekly Top Fake team verified the location of the recording and discovered that it was not filmed in Belarus at all. Through a reverse image search, journalists found that the video appeared online a month ago, with some sources claiming it was filmed in Germany and others in Turkey.
We located the original post on the professional networking site LinkedIn. A sales manager at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Minneapolis posted the video in December 2025, expressing gratitude for the rapid snow removal on the lot that saved the staff time and effort. The video shows that the tractor is not Belarusian, but rather made by the American brand Bobcat. The logos and model number of the machine match those shown in the video posted by the Belarusian silovik Telegram channel.
Thus, the investigation has revealed that the recording used by the Belarusian silovik Telegram channel to illustrate purported snow removal in Belarus was not filmed in a Belarusian city and appeared online before the events described.
