IMAGES AND VIDEOS shared online have been labelled as showing a ‘brave’ Ukrainian girl standing up to a ‘Russian’ soldier.
The arresting stills of the fair-haired girl approaching a heavily-armed soldier were captioned ‘The moment an 8 year Ukrainian girl [sic] confronts a Russian soldier telling him to go back to his country’ by one account.
According to Crowd Tangle over 100 similar posts of the girl have appeared on Facebook since February 2022, racking up over 17,000 interactions.
One post from a Burmese language account received 1.4 thousand likes alone.
Content about a small girl challenging an armed invader might be morale-boosting, but is this picture of a Ukrainian girl and a Russian soldier?
First, the clothing of the girl and the terrain in the background indicates the photo was taken in a warm, arid climate. According to weather reports the temperatures in Kyiv haven’t exceeded a maximum of 8 degrees since the invasion began, making it unlikely that the photo was taken in Ukraine recently.
Second, an image search shows the screenshots of the same girl in a 2018 BBC article.
The images are from a Youtube video of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi, taken when she was 12-years-old, confronting Israeli authorities.
Tamimi was arrested in 2017 aged 16 following a viral video of her slapping Israeli soldiers. The footage, the arrest and her subsequent incarceration made international headlines.
While this is a photo of a young girl clashing with a soldier, it is not a Ukrainian girl and a Russian soldier. It is an old photo from the West Bank, debunking the claim that these are images from the current war in Ukraine.
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