Ukraine-Russia War: 2016 Photo of Children Sending Off Army Shared as Recent

The image was uploaded by Ukraine's Ministry of Defence in March 2016.

A photograph showing two children bidding goodbye to soldiers riding on an armoured vehicle has gone viral by linking it with the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia that began on Thursday, 24 February.

The claims come in the backdrop of intense battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces in various regions of Ukraine, including the suburbs of the capital Kyiv.

However, we found that the image could be traced back to 2016 and it wasn't related to the recent war between Russia and Ukraine.

Catch all the live updates on the Russia-Ukraine tensions here.

CLAIM

The caption with the viral image read, "This photo brought tears to my eyes. Two young Ukrainian children sending off soldiers to fight the Russians. The kids holding hands, the girl holds a stuffed animal, the boy (her brother?) salutes. Look what he has on his back. This picture speaks a thousand words."

The image was widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with similar captions, archives of some of which can be found here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We conducted a reverse image search on the viral image and found the image uploaded on the official Facebook page of Ministry of Defence, Ukraine in 2016.

The caption, when translated from Ukrainian to English using Google Translate, read, "For us dear parents, dear children, loved ones, relatives; but all notions of love to something are combined in one word 'Homeland' (Cicero) . Thanks for the incredible photos from the album 'Children of War' author Dmitry Muravsky."

The photographs were credited to an amateur photographer who volunteers with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, Dmitry Muravsky.

We found the photograph on Muravsky's Facebook profile, posted on 22 March 2016. The album contained several other photographs showing children interacting with people in armed forces' uniform.

We found the same photographs published in Ukrainian news websites in 2016.

Evidently, an old image showing children bidding goodbye to soldiers has been linked to the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.

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