This image does not show a child survivor of Russia-Ukraine war

Hyderabad: Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022, social media has been flooded with videos and images with fake claims.

On 26 December, Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko shared an image of a boy in tattered clothes with bruises and dirt on his face claiming that the kid is a survivor of the Russian attack.

The caption read, "The saddest part: there are no children in #Ukraine anymore. Only little humans with very grown-up eyes, old even. Somewhat tired of a life yet unlived. Pictured: Marc, 8 yo, just survived a #russia artillery attack." (Archive)

A screenshot of the tweet is circulating on Facebook too.

Fact Check

NewsMeter noticed that Twitter users were commenting on Ms. Vasylenko's post and saying that the photo is old. They also shared a cover of the Spanish book, El Hombre en el olvido, authored by Christina McKenna that had the same child on the cover.

Taking this as a cue, we searched for the book on Amazon and found the boy featured on the cover. According to Amazon, "The Misremembered Man" (Hombre en el olvido) is the debut bestseller of Christina McKenna published in 2008. It is a portrait of life in rural Ireland.

According to McKenna's website, she is an Irish novelist. "The Misremembered Man" is the first book in the trilogy which gave her popularity as a novelist.

We also found the same cover featuring the boy in a video published on YouTube in 2014.

It is evident that the image of the boy is from a Spanish novel published in 2008. Hence, we conclude that the claim that the image shows a survivor of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is misleading.