Fact Check: Old image of Ukrainian president Zelensky in military uniform shared as recent
Social media users are sharing pictures of Ukrainian president Zelensky claiming that he put on a military uniform to fight against Russian forces.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 28 Feb 2022 10:00 AM GMT
Hyderabad: Several images of Zelensky claiming that he took off his Presidential suit and put on a uniform to join the troops in fighting for Ukraine amid Russian invasion has gone viral on social media.
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Fact check:
The claim is false.
NewsMeter conducted a google reverse search for the image and found a report by Reuters, dated April 21, 2021, with the caption 'Ukraine's Zelensky to Putin: Meet me for peace talks in a conflict zone. '
The report carried the viral image of Zelensky in military uniform with the caption 'Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky visits positions of armed forces near the frontline with Russian-backed separatists in Donbas region, Ukraine April 9, 2021.'
Another report by Turkey's duvaR.English from 2021 carried the same image of Zelensky with the same caption.
Further, we conducted Google reverse search on the second viral image and found a report by i24News, dated December 14, 2021, with the title 'Ukraine accuses Germany of blocking NATO weapons supply'.
The report carried Zelensky's viral image with the caption, "Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky visits combat positions and meets with servicemen at the frontline with Russia-backed separatists in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, on December 6, 2021."
We ran a Google reverse image search for the third viral image of Zelensky in the military uniform and found a report by The Conservation, dated December 9, 2021, with the title 'Ukraine: crisis between Russia and the west in the region has been brewing for 30 years.'
The report carried the Ukrainian President's viral image with the caption, "Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, visiting troops on the frontline with pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region."
We found that the fourth image was published in a website called 112UA on 26 October 2019 in a report titled 'Disengagement of forces in Donbas: Zelensky stays in Zolote for the second day.'
The caption of the image read, "The president of Ukraine communicates with the military and local citizens. "
We conducted a Google reverse image search for the sixth picture and came across a report by Bild, dated February 17, 2022. The report carried a similar image.
Taking clues from the report, we conducted some keyword search and found the viral image was posted by Paul Ronzheimer, a reporter at 'BILD-Zeitung', on his verified Twitter account on February 17, 2022.
He shared the image with a caption, "President of Ukraine just minutes ago at the frontline near Donetsk. He was speaking to soldiers, his message: No panic, Everything is under control. Lets hope so!"
Hence, the claims are false. The images are old and unrelated to the current scenario.
