The DFRLab identified at least three false or strategically incomplete claims in the MoD’s statement, including the claim that no harmful substances were released into the atmosphere; that the explosion was a result of a test of a liquid propulsion system, while omitting any reference to the nuclear component of the test; and that only two people died as a result of the explosion.

No Harmful Substances Were Released, Honestly

Russia’s MoD stated that the explosion did not emit elevated radiation or harmful substances, but shortly after the accident, Severodvinsk city officials published a press release noting that seven sensors in the city recorded a short-term increase in radiation levels. The next day, however, the administration deleted the press release from its website, although a number of media outlets had already referenced it.

Meanwhile, an open-source investigation led by nonproliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis spotted a Russian nuclear fuel carrier ship, the “Serebryanka,” on the bay of the White Sea on August 9, the day of the accident. The Serebryanka is routinely used to collect, store, and transport radioactive materials, and researchers concluded that the ship must have arrived at the bay to collect radioactive fallout from the explosion.

An August 8 image showing the “Serebryanka” near a missile test site in Russia. (Source: @ArmsControlWonk/archive)

After some of the injured personnel were airlifted from Severodvinsk to Moscow for treatment, a video appeared online showing specialists in hazmat suits using dosimeters (which measure radioactive particle uptake) to check the medical evacuation helicopter used in the transportation. It appeared as if the injured and the dead were removed from the helicopter only after it was confirmed that the level of radiation inside of the helicopter was normal.

A video of a specialist checking the inside of an evacuation helicopter with a dosimeter in Arkhangelsk. (Source: news-inform via Youtube/archive)

Additionally, subsequent video footage taken in Moscow — published on Baza, a news channel on Telegram — claimed to show the ambulances used to transport the injured as wrapped in a protective film. Though less obvious than the protective cover, the color of the ambulance drivers’ clothing indicated that they too may have been wearing hazmat suits.

Video showing the transfer of injured people in specially wrapped ambulances in Moscow. (Source: Baza/archive)

On August 13, 2019, authorities finally acknowledged that the radiation level in Severodvinsk had increased at least briefly following the explosion. The Russian Hydrometeorological Center confirmed that shortly after the explosion, the radiation level increased in six out of the eight observation points in Severodvinsk, while gamma radiation increased between four-to-sixteenfold. On the same day, Russia’s MoD officials notified residents of the village of Nenoksa, 40 kilometers west of Severodvinsk, that they would be evacuated on the morning of August 14. Severodvinsk city officials, however, later said that Nenoksa “residents were indeed asked to leave the village for a while, but that this is not an evacuation.”According to the Severodvinsk municipal government’s press service, people were asked to leave on a voluntarily basis and could return back to village on their own.

The DFRLab examined the spread of narratives related to the evacuation of Nenoksa online. A Sysomos search of the keywords “Эвакуация” (“evacuation”) and “Ненокса” (“Nenoksa”) from August 8 to August 16, 2019, returned 158 mentions.