Photo of burning hangar in Russia wrongly attributed to drone crash in Latvia

The context

An image circulating online, captured in Belgorod, Russia, has been inaccurately linked to the recent crash of a Russian drone in Latvia.

On September 7, a drone crashed in Latvia's Rēzekne municipality. The Latvian Ministry of Defense said in a press release published on September 8 that preliminary data suggested that the vehicle was a Russian military drone. 

The following day, a user on X (formerly Twitter) shared a photo (archived here) of a collapsed, burning hangar, captioned, "Russia hit Latvia, a NATO member." 

However, the photo was taken in Belgorod, Russia, not Latvia.

What we found

The earliest instance of the image found by Logically Facts was on September 8, when Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of Belgorod Oblast, posted it on his Telegram channel. He stated that the photo showed a hangar in the village of Nikolskoye, Belgorod district, which caught fire and collapsed following a drone attack by the Ukrainian armed forces.

A photo of a burning hangar was posted on the Belgorod Governor's Telegram channel. (Source: Telegram/ Настоящий Гладков)

Logically Facts analyzed satellite images of Nikolskoye village using Google Maps to identify the specific production facility. After pinpointing a facility with distinctive red stripes — the Nekrasovykh Furniture Factory —we compared it with the photo shared on X.

A comparison between the photo posted on X with a caption linking it to Latvia (left) and a photo of the Nekrasovykh Furniture Factory in Belgorod, Russia, available on its website (right).

We geolocated the factory (here) by comparing identifiable features, such as the parking lot layout, building structures, and lamp post placement, between the photo posted on X and an image from the factory's website. 

According to a Latvian Ministry of Defence press release, the drone that crashed in the country's Rēzekne municipality entered Latvian airspace from Belarus and lost control.

The Latvian Ministry of Defence told Logically Facts that there were no casualties or damage to infrastructure related to the incident.

On September 9, the Latvian Ministry of Defence published another press release and said that it was a Shahed-type drone, which, they said, Russia uses in strikes against Ukraine. 

The verdict

The image of the burning hangar was not taken in Latvia. Logically Facts geolocated the image to Belgorod, Russia.