In reality, the pictures of the graduates were taken in Ternopil, and their ribbons depicted the correct map of Ukraine.
Pro-Russian sources are spreading the news that school students in Lviv were given graduation ribbons with a map of Ukraine without Crimea. The publications are accompanied by a photo of the «incident» and snarky remarks such as «the acceptance stage has begun». The news spread beyond the Russian-speaking segment of social networks and was published in Polish, Greek, Chinese and other languages.
Screenshot — crimea-news.com
However, this photo has been altered in a photo editor. We managed to find a store that sells ribbons with such a template. On their Instagram page and website, the map of Ukraine is depicted only within the borders recognized by the entire civilized world, including the Crimean peninsula.
Screenshot — festshop.com.ua
In reality, the photos of graduates were taken at school #19 in Ternopil and published by the local media «20 Minutes». At the celebration, the school headmistress wished the youth «… to carry love for Ukraine in their hearts, to become worthy Ukrainians and those who will rebuild our Ukraine.» In the photo report of the publication, you can see the same three girls whose photos are distributed by propagandists. Their ribbons depict a map of Ukraine with internationally recognized borders, and therefore Crimea was most likely removed from the map in the photo editor.
Photo — te.20minut.ua
Recently, we refuted another claim about temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories in the article Manipulation: President Zelenskyy Ready to Give Up Crimea and Donbas.
