A photograph from 2014
Social media is abuzz with postings of a photo showing a man in camouflage raising the Russian flag over the entrance to an official looking building with fake claims that Russian forces have taken Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv. The building is the Kharkiv Regional Council and the posting is a lie, as the photograph is from 2014.
A reverse Google image search shows that the photograph was first published in March 2014. Then, during the pro-Russian rallies in this eastern Ukrainian city, one of the participants hoisted the flag of the Russian Federation over the entrance to the Kharkiv Regional Council building.
On March 1, 2014 Ukrainian media reported that a demonstrator, a Russian citizen, hoisted the Russian flag onto the Council building. He also posted the photograph in a social media comment.
Ukraine’s General Staff informs that battles are taking place on the outskirts of Kharkiv. According to a post on the General Staff’s official Facebook page, Ukrainian military destroyed four Russian tanks on the city’s outlying ring road.
Similar fakes were being circulated today claiming that Ukraine’s military headquarters in Donbas was completely destroyed.
