MARY ALEXANDER • 8 JULY 2024

“Young Ukrainian girls are being forced into the military to fight the war against Russia,” reads the caption for a photo doing the rounds on Facebook in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere since late June 2024.*

The photo shows a group of young women in camouflage uniform with their heads bowed.

The Russia-Ukraine war in eastern Europe has been waging for more than two years now, since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its western neighbour in February 2022.

The United States and countries of northern and western Europe have supported Ukraine with aid, weapons and military equipment.

The claim has been posted with comments such as:

• “This Conscription Of Young Girls Is One Too Many. Why Force Them?”
• “They have no respect for women, the west is immoral.”
• “Biden is e v i l.”

Joe Biden is the president of the United States.

But does the photo really show “young girls” forced into Ukraine’s military to fight Russia?

Ukrainian military conscripts must be at least 25

A reverse image search reveals that the photo is one of more than 20 showing a ceremony at Kyiv National University’s Taras Shevchenko Military Institute. Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine.

The photos were posted on the institute’s Facebook page on 11 June. The ceremony was to honour fallen graduates.

The viral photo also appears in a Ukrainian-language news report. A machine translation of its caption reads: “On Tuesday, June 11, the Military Institute of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv commemorated the fallen graduates.”

The report adds: “The rector of KNU Volodymyr Bugrov, the management of the military institute, officers, military chaplains, cadets and relatives honoured the fallen soldiers. The military chaplain of the institute Serhiy Dmitriev and other representatives of the clergy read a prayer.”

This can all be seen in the photos on the institute’s Facebook post.

And a closer look at the viral photo reveals that the women are all wearing the emblem of the Taras Shevchenko Military Institute on their left shoulders. Another photo of graduates wearing the same emblem can be seen here.

Ukraine does conscript civilians into the military, but they have to be adults. In April, the minimum conscription age was lowered from 27 to 25.

The women in the photo are student cadets at Kyiv university’s military institute, their heads bowed during a ceremony to honour fallen graduates. They aren’t being “forced into the military to fight the war against Russia”.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 10 July 2024

The post Photo of Ukrainian university cadets, not ‘young girls forced to fight Russia’ appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 22 APRIL 2024
Published by Africa Check on 25 April 2024

“WW3 ALERT.”

That’s the fearmongering theme of a false message circulating on social media since mid-March 2024. WW3 refers to a possible third world war.

The message claims that China has said it will “intervene militarily” if the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) attack Russia.*

China, Russia and the US are among the world’s most powerful countries. Nato – also known by its French acronym Otan – is a military alliance formed in 1949 in response to a perceived threat from the Russia-controlled Soviet Union, which fell apart in 1991.

Nato’s members include Canada and the US in North America, countries in Europe, and Turkey, which straddles Europe and Asia. Its newest member is the previously nonaligned European country of Sweden, which joined on 7 March 2024.

China and Russia are not Nato members.

The false claim has recently appeared on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) in Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere. Its versions include:

• CHINA WARNS USA AND NATO. “China is ready to intervene militarily anywhere if the US or NATO decide to attack Russia,” said a Chinese Defense Ministry official.
• “China is prepared to get militarily involved anywhere, if the US and NATO decide ro attack Russia.” ~Spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Defence. The Chinese know that if the US and NATO are not stopped now, it will be China’s turn next.
• TANKEFEI, spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense: “#China is ready to intervene militarily anywhere if the #US or #NATO were to undertake to attack #Russia”
• China Declared that they are Ready, to intervene anywhere militarily if US or Nato Attack Russia. It Brics VS West.

Brics is an intergovernmental grouping founded by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Many versions of the claim include a video of Chinese president Xi Jinping addressing a huge crowd of soldiers, with military vehicles behind them.

Others link to a 17 March article on the India-based website Times Now, headlined: “China ‘Ready to Intervene’ if US, NATO attack Russia: Report”.

But the claim is false, and old. It first appeared online more than two years ago, when it was dismissed by China’s military.

‘Stop manufacturing and disseminating false information’

First, the video of Xi addressing soldiers is more than six years old. It was posted in an article on the UK Guardian’s website, dated 4 January 2018 and headlined: “Chinese army puts on show of military might for Xi Jinping – video”.

The clip shows 7,000 troops at the start of military training outside Beijing, China’s capital. The subtitles to Xi’s speech do not mention the US, Nato or Russia.

Second, the only source Times Now credits in its article is the dodgy Telegram channel WW3.INFO Battlefield Research. The channel has been criticised for posting false information.

Third, the claim dates back to late February 2022 in the days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

At the time it circulated only in French and Spanish. But machine translations show it’s the same claim.

• From French: “Chinese Ministry of National Defence spokesperson Tan Kefei said that anytime, anywhere, they are ready to support Russia in case the United States and NATO want to intervene militarily.”
• From Spanish: “CHINA WILL SUPPORT RUSSIA IF THE US AND NATO INTERVENE MILITARY… It was announced by the Chinese Ministry of Defense. #China #Rusia #Ucrania #EEUU #OTAN #Asia #Europa #Francia #Alemania”

The original claim, in Spanish, can also be seen here, here and here.

At the time, it was fact-checked by Agence France-Presse (AFP), which found it had no basis in fact.

The fact-check adds that China’s defence ministry “strongly denied” the claim.

AFP quotes the ministry as saying (in a machine translation from French): “The spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of National Defence has never made this statement. We urge relevant media to observe professional ethics and stop manufacturing and disseminating false information.”

And there has been no recent credible news that China announced it would mount a military intervention in the still-unlikely event that the US and Nato invade Russia. Such an announcement would have made global headlines.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

The post China ‘ready to intervene’ if US and Nato attack Russia? No, alarmist old claim dismissed by Chinese defence ministry in 2022 appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 8 APRIL 2024

Russian president Vladimir Putin recently “opened an ancient box revealing that Jesus was black”.

At least, that’s the claim circulating on social media in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and elsewhere since just before the Easter holidays of late March 2024.*

The claim includes a video divided into three frames. At top is footage of Putin at a table with uniformed men, opening an ornate golden box. Inside we briefly see a Russian Orthodox religious artwork known as an icon.

The frame at bottom left shows a similar artwork, of a dark-skinned Jesus, and at bottom right is a photo of Putin pointing his finger.

The video starts with a machine-generated voice: “Putin reveals to the world a secret that European has been hiding from African for millennium, that Jesus was black.” A millennium is 1,000 years.

The clip then cuts to a second section headed with the text “Russia says Jesus was black with proof.” A more human voice says Russia has “opened its cellars” to “reveal biblical icons featuring darker-skinned figures”. The footage shows paintings in what seems to be a museum.

Then, one by one, nine artworks of people from Christian tradition are flashed on screen. All are darker than the common western image of a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus.

The voice adds that “Americans turned the bible white”, but “Russians didn’t get the message”.

The claim can also be seen here, here and here.

It’s worth noting that a month ago the US-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies said it had found, since 2022, a fourfold increase in false information spread across online networks in Africa. Most of the disinformation was from Russia.

Is the video really evidence that Putin has “opened an ancient box revealing Jesus was black” and that Russia “says Jesus was black with proof”?

Putin gives icon copies to military in occupied Ukraine

The footage of Putin includes the logo of the Daily Mail, a UK-based tabloid. So we searched the Daily Mail’s YouTube channel using the keywords “Putin icon”. This led us to the original video, posted a year ago in April 2023.

Its description reads: “Vladimir Putin visits illegally annexed Kherson, Ukraine”.

According to several news reports based on a Kremlin press release, Putin made a surprise visit to the Russia-occupied Kherson region of southern Ukraine on 18 April 2023.

There he held a meeting with Russian military commanders and presented them with copies of Russian religious icons.

Russia’s state-owned Tass news service reports that the copies were bought from a private collector in the USA. The original icons had belonged to Pyotr Vannovsky, Russia’s minister of war in the late 1800s.

There are no reports that Putin “revealed that Jesus was black” during his Kherson visit. And the “ancient box” he is seen opening in the viral video is actually the covering of a relatively new icon replica, bought from the USA.

The icon image below the footage of Putin is unrelated to his gifts. A reverse image search shows it is a 17th-century artwork in the permanent collection of the Tomsk Regional Art Museum in central Russia.

Video of 2011 exhibition

The footage in the second part of the viral video is not “proof” that Russia “recently” opened its “cellars” to reveal that Jesus was black.

The footage is more than 12 years old. It’s not recent. It shows an exhibition of 40 Russian icons from the 1400s to the 1900s held at the Castel Sant’Angelo museum in Rome, Italy in September 2011. One report has it that the works were hidden during the 1917 Russian Revolution to “protect them from anti-religious destruction”.

Recent art claimed to be ‘ancient’

And while the nine artworks flashed across the screen are in an icon style, not all of them are Russian or particularly old.

One (here) is by contemporary Norwegian artist Ove Svele, two (here and here) by contemporary US artist Robert Lentz, and another (here) celebrates the Sudan-born Catholic saint Josephine Bakhita, who died in 1947 and was canonised in 2000. The rest – here, here, here, here, here and here – have been online for years.

The idea that Jesus and other biblical figures were black isn’t new. And the claim ignores the rich artistic traditions of Christianity’s many branches. These include the art of the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which tradition holds was established in the first century of the common era and has been a formal church for 1,700 years.

Edited version published by Africa Check on 12 April 2024.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

The post No, Russian president Putin hasn’t ‘revealed’ that Jesus was black – images of black Jesus go back centuries appeared first on South Africa Gateway.