As Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to launch a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, several images and videos have surfaced from the war-hit country, Ukraine. One such emotional image shows a couple wrapped in Russian and Ukrainian flags embracing each other, with the claim that the visuals are recent ones from the ongoing crisis.
A Facebook user shared the image with the caption, “Poignant: A man draped in the Ukrainian flag embraces a woman wearing the Russian flag. Let us hope love, peace, and co-existence triumph over war and conflict.”
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also shared the image with the same claim.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral image and found it to be shared with a misleading claim.
On performing a Reverse Image Search, we found the same viral image carried in an article by The Washington Post that was published on December 4, 2019. “Juliana Kuznetsova embraces her fiance at Belarusan singer Max Korzh’s concert in Warsaw on Nov. 27,” reads the caption with the image.
According to a Forumdaily article, Juliana Kuznetsova, who is a Russian, and her fiance, who is a Ukrainian, draped themselves in their respective country’s flag and asked to be photographed together post the concert of the Belarusian rapper Max Korzh in Warsaw in November 2019.
Therefore, with the above information, it can be concluded that the viral image is being shared with a misleading claim in the present context.
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