Photo does not show Ukrainian soldiers being greeted with flowers

Photo does not show Ukrainian soldiers being greeted with flowers

(Reuters) - Contrary to user claims, a photo showing people on an overhead bridge greeting soldiers on a tank is unrelated to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The image is over 30 years old appears in Croatian language articles tracing it to Yugoslavia in 1991.

The photo circulating on social sites in February 2022 is accompanied by posts saying it shows Ukrainian soldiers entering “the liberated part of Kiev,” where the “people greet them with flowers.”

However, a Reuters reverse image search brings up Croatian language articles that say the photo was taken on September 19, 1991, as tanks headed from Belgrade, in now-Serbia, towards Vukovar, in now Croatia (then-Yugoslavia). The image depicts onlookers “throwing flowers in front of tanks” to soldiers from the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA).

Vukovar was reduced to rubble during a three-month siege by Yugoslav and Serbian forces in late 1991, during the independence war with Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.

VERDICT

Miscaptioned. The image shared on social sites is from Serbia 1991. The picture does not show Ukrainian soldiers being greeted with flowers upon entering “the liberated part of Kiev,” as some social media users suggested.