Three photos have been shared thousands of times on Facebook in Tanzania and Kenya alongside a claim that they show a young Ukrainian girl confronting a Russian soldier. But this is false: the images are screenshots from a YouTube video of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi challenging an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank in 2012.
One of the posts, which features three images of the girl and soldier taken from different angles, was published on Facebook on February 27, 2022. It has since been shared more than 1,500 times.
“An 8 year Ukrainian girl confronts a Russian soldier telling him to go back to his country. This is courageous (sic),” partly reads the post.
Other posts containing the same images showing the altercation were published on Facebook and Twitter in Spanish and Portuguese.
The claim surfaced after Russia launched a full-scale military invasion into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, as AFP reported.
The escalating conflict has given rise to a wave of online disinformation. AFP Fact Check has debunked a number of false claims, including here, here and here.
The images do not show a Ukrainian girl in a stand-off in an altercation with an armed Russian soldier.
A reverse Image search found that the pictures have been shared in a false context.
They are screenshots from a video posted on YouTube on December 24, 2012, showing Tamimi, then aged 11, shouting at an Israeli soldier in the West Bank.
The scene of Tamimi raising her fist at the...
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