As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hits the 11-month mark, Euronews continues to debunk the disinformation conflict that is going on on-line.
Many social media customers have shared a photo on Twitter claiming {that a} Ukrainian soldier can also be observed posing subsequent to a lifeless Russian fighter’s frame.
It has been shared in a couple of languages, together with Spanish and Italian.
These posts declare that the girl within the photograph’s title is “Lilia Yevtushenko”, purportedly a “Ukrainian soldier who had been captured by the Russian army”.
Twitter customers claimed she took photos subsequent to lifeless Moscow troops so that they might be despatched to the moms of Russian squaddies as a caution.
Using equipment such because the opposite symbol seek, Euronews discovered the unique photograph on this article, revealed through the Ukrainian information outlet Gazeta.
The article states her actual title isn’t “Lilia Yevtushenko” however quite Oleksandra Samsonova, a 23-year-old sniper of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In addition, Ukraine’s **Elle mag**franchise wrote a profile of Samsonova again in July 2022.
The profile had even Ukrainian officers — comparable to marketing consultant to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Geraschenko — retweeting the object, confirming Oleksandra’s identification.
Euronews additionally discovered Samsonova’s non-public Instagram profile and the unique photograph that has been doctored.
Samsonova isn’t pictured subsequent to a corpse, and the photograph was once taken again in March 2021 — 11 months prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Moreover, her final put up — revealed on 21 January, the place she is calling for donations to the Ukrainian defenders in Bakhmut — does now not upload as much as the claims that she has been captured through the Russian military.
Underneath the photograph that includes two Ukrainian squaddies whose faces had been blurred, Samsonova replied a remark from a nervous follower through pronouncing, “Don’t believe the Russian propaganda, I’m alive.”
