Photo shows “Russian soldiers with a Ukrainian girl, celebrating their human trophy.”
This isn’t a photo of Russian soldiers with a bound Ukrainian girl
If your time is short
- This photo is more than a decade old and shows Israeli soldiers posing with a Palestinian detainee, according to news reports.
A photo spreading on Instagram shows someone kneeling and blindfolded as four people stand around bearing weapons and making faces.
“Russian soldiers with a Ukrainian girl, celebrating their human trophy,” a description of the image says.
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
That’s because the photo has been online for more than a decade and isn’t related to the current conflict in Ukraine.
Haaretz posted the image in August 2010 as part of a story about Israeli Defense Forces soldiers posting photos on Facebook that show them posing with bound Palestinian detainees.
The caption of the image that appears in that story says: “IDF soldiers with a Palestinian detainee.”
We rate claims that this image shows Russian soldiers with a Ukrainian girl False.
Our Sources
Instagram post, Oct. 25, 2022
Haaretz, 'Facebook Photos of Soldiers Posing With Bound Palestinians Are the Norm,’ Aug. 17, 2010
