A photo of an armed woman riding a bus has gone viral on Twitter, claiming to show a recent example of “daily life in Ukraine.” One tweet was posted on Feb. 12 and had more than 7,000 likes and more than 1,200 retweets.
The photo has been circulating online as tensions have been building in Ukraine since Russia increased their military presence along the Ukrainian border. On Feb. 13, U.S. President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “that the United States would respond swiftly and decisively, together with its Allies and partners, to any further Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
Editor’s note: This is a developing story. VERIFY will be continuing to monitor for claims around the Russia-Ukraine border tensions. Want something verified? Email your questions about the border conflict to questions@verifythis.com.
THE QUESTION
Was this photo of an armed woman taken during the current tensions along the Russian-Ukraine border?
THE SOURCES
- RevEye, a reverse image search tool
- Meme Warfare, a meme blog site
- Ekaterina Gladkikh, a Russian social media influencer
THE ANSWER
No, this photo was not taken during the current tensions along the Russian-Ukraine border.
WHAT WE FOUND
Using RevEye, a reverse image search tool, VERIFY was able to confirm this photo was not taken recently. This photo has been circulating online for at least two years and has been used as a popular meme.
On the Russian social networking site VK, this photo was posted on March 27, 2020, which is the earliest version VERIFY could find. In the comments, Russian social media influencer Ekaterina Gladkikh wrote that she was the woman in the photo. She also shared the post to her own VK page.
According to her Instagram account, Gladkikh is Russian, but is currently located in Novosibirsk, a city in Serbia.
VERIFY also found a Reddit post with the image that was posted on March 30, 2020 on a subreddit called “ANormalDayinRussia.” The photo was also posted to Facebook on March 31, 2020.
In April 2020, the photo of the woman also appeared on a meme blog with the title: “Evolution of a Meme: Girl in Belarus on a Bus with AK.” The Reddit post claimed it was taken in Russia.
The image had also been shared across Instagram (see here and here) in 2021. It has also been shared widely across VK.
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