War in Ukraine: This photo of an armed girl is not what you think

If you've been browsing Facebook, Instagram or Twitter in the past few days, you've certainly come across a photograph that caught your eye. In this shot, we can see a young girl sitting on an exploded window of a dilapidated house, due to the war raging in Ukraine since February 24.

The truth in the picture

Many Internet users have liked, shared, retweeted this photograph, which is supposed to represent the war in Ukraine against Russia under the prism of the little girl. But the truth is quite different. Indeed, this shot was taken on February 22, before the Russian invasion. Also, this is staged and not a candid.

It was the photographer, Oleksii Kyrychenko, who explained it in a long post published this Sunday, March 13. He thus wanted to restore the truth around his work. And you know what ? The girl in the photo is none other than his daughter!

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The photographer explains

The one who was an engineer in a company at Kyiv before the start of the war is passionate about photography. If he made this shot, it was to 'draw attention to the possible war,' which unfortunately became the reality. Its aim was to show 'what Ukraine might look like in the near future.'

His last explanations? He indicates that his 9-year-old daughter handles a weapon which is obviously not loaded, adding that she does not know how to handle weapons. The shot was taken in an abandoned building. Oleksii Kyrychenko, who fled Kiev with his family, said his photograph had gone viral and 'became a meme.' It was banned from many Facebook groups, including those with Russian administrators.

This article has been translated from Oh!MyMag FR.