Posts spread fictional tale of ‘Ukrainian beauty’ who blew up 52 tanks

Assert: Photograph of lady in a army uniform shows “Ukrainian beauty” who “blew up 52 invading Russian tanks.”

AP’S Evaluation: Bogus. The woman in the image is a military medical doctor, not a overcome soldier, according to news stories, posts on her Facebook account and messages from her mother.

THE Details: A misrepresented photograph of a trauma health care provider in Ukraine is the newest instance of fake propaganda and disinformation that have confused social media in reaction to Russia’s war on Ukraine about the earlier 7 weeks.

The photograph, which spread widely on-line this week, showed a young girl in a camouflage jacket embellished with medals and pins, like 1 with a Ukrainian flag. Twitter posts touted her as a overcome hero, liable for destroying Russian army vehicles.

“This Ukrainian natural beauty blew up 52 invading Russian tanks,” study 1 tweet that was shared a lot more than 9,000 moments.

“Retweet if you imagine she’s a HERO,” an additional Twitter person additional.

But the details is incorrect. A reverse-impression research uncovered the photo of the Ukrainian female, Maj. Victoria Palamarchuk, appeared in an posting about her work as a military health practitioner. The posting was revealed in March 2021 by ArmyInform, an details agency of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

The posting explained Palamarchuk as a traumatologist who began operating for the Ukrainian armed service in 2014. In 2021, ArmyInform explained, she was a senior resident of the traumatology section who operated on sufferers with gunshot wounds, executed amputations and carried out other surgical procedures at a army medical clinic in the eastern Ukrainian metropolis of Dnipro.

The Affiliated Push made use of Fb to observe down Palamarchuk’s mother, Tatyana Palamarchuk, who confirmed the promises she blew up 52 tanks were false.

“About tanks – it is a bogus! Victoria is a military health practitioner, trauma surgeon,” the elder Palamarchuk wrote in a Facebook concept in Ukrainian. “She does not require wrong deserves. She has some thing to be proud of and rightly so.”

Tatyana Palamarchuk stated her daughter was much too active with get the job done to answer to the fake claim, but shared her daughter’s Facebook account, which corroborated her home in Dnipro and her do the job as a trauma medical professional.

When Palamarchuk discovered about the phony statements spreading about her, she described them to Ukraine’s condition protection support, the SBU, her mom explained.

A wider world-wide-web research observed Palamarchuk was featured in other media experiences, which includes a variety of interviews revealed on YouTube and a aspect tale on her participation in a military services motorcycle club.

Russia has shed about 25% of the beat power it sent into Ukraine, according to Pentagon estimates.

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Linked Press writer Arijeta Lajka in New York contributed to this report.

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This is part of AP’s energy to handle widely shared misinformation, which includes get the job done with exterior firms and corporations to incorporate factual context to deceptive content that is circulating on line. Learn much more about point-examining at AP.