False posts show photo of Russian TV presenter, not Ukrainian first lady
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 27, 2022 at 05:27
- Updated on October 27, 2022 at 05:27
- 3 min read
- By Panisa AEMOCHA, AFP Thailand
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The collage of an image of a woman lying on a beach -- with parts of her body censored -- and a headshot photo of Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska was posted here on October 21, 2022.
The Thai-language caption reads: "Zelensky’s wife is in Israel right now and this is a photo of the Ukrainian First Lady during a holiday in Israel on 10/19/2022."
The author claimed the picture "was leaked to Russian reporters".
An identical image collage with a similar caption was also posted here, here, and here on Facebook.
A Twitter post with an identical image collage and claim has been retweeted more than 120 times and gained more than 320 likes.
Comments on the posts suggested that some people believed the photo of a woman on the beach to be Zelenska.
One comment reads: "Live luxuriously. Hunger for power. Doesn't care about people's suffering. Have money and everything.
"Flying to have some fun while losing the war, leaving people to suffer. Politician. Comedian."
Another decried how Zelenska was "sleep(ing) comfortably while people have no place to live. Throwing suffering to the people while having personal enjoyment".
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not left war-torn Ukraine, Zelenska has travelled widely to urge Kyiv's allies to help the country's armed forces with weaponry, AFP reported.
The photo of the woman on a beach, however, does not show Zelenska.
Russian TV presenter
A reverse image search on Yandex followed by a keyword search found the same image had been posted as far back as 2016 in articles about Russian TV presenter Elena Lenina.
Images of Lenina that were similar to the photo of the woman on a beach in the false posts were published here by Russian free-to-air television network REN TV in June 2016.
REN TV reported that the pictures of Lenina leaked during a renovation of her home, when construction workers were able to access her cellphone.
Content warning
The comparison below shows similarities between the photo in the false post (left) and the image of Lenina from the Russian publication (right):
An identical, but flipped, version of the image was also posted on several pornographic websites.
On October 24, Lenina posted an Instagram story from her verified account about the false claim, saying in part: "My photo is being exploited".
The Ukrainian embassy in Thailand also told AFP that the image did not show the country's first lady, Olena Zelenska.
"Undoubtedly, the person from the (image) is not Mrs Olena Zelenska," said Dmytro Deineko, an embassy official.
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