Images show the Ukrainian flag being replaced by the Soviet Union flag in Mariupol in 2022.
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Images of Ukrainian flag being replaced with Soviet Union flag are from 2015, not 2022
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Iterations of the collage have been online since at least 2015 and appear to be screenshots of a video that shows pro-Russian forces taking control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve. It’s unrelated to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
A series of photos shared on social media appears to show a man in Mariupol, Ukraine, swapping out a dilapidated blue and yellow Ukrainian flag hanging from an industrial building with the red flag of the former Soviet Union.
"Illich, steel factory, Mariupol. Victory is Red. For the motherland," reads the caption of an April 18 Instagram post that shared the collage. Similar posts have also spread on Twitter.
The photos are real, but they’re outdated and do not appear to have been taken in Mariupol. The social media posts were miscaptioned.
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
A reverse-image search shows that the collage has been around since at least 2015. The four images appear to be screenshots taken from a YouTube video posted on March 3, 2015. (The images can be seen around the one-minute mark).
"Prizrak Brigade, Communist militiaman raises the Soviet flag on freed Debaltsevo," the video’s caption read.
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The brigade is a separatist group in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. The region includes the city of Debaltseve (also spelled Debaltsevo), which pro-Russian forces seized in February 2015.
Visegrad24, a group that aggregates news from various European countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, shared the collage on Twitter, saying "this is what the occupying forces did in Debaltseve in 2015 after taking control of the city." The city appears to still be in their control.
News reports from 2015 describe the Prizrak Brigade as having taken part in "some of the heaviest battles in Ukraine’s pro-Russia east" since the start of the conflict in 2014.
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Around 100 civilians were recently evacuated from the steel factory in Mariupol, seen as one of the last Ukrainian strongholds in the city, which has otherwise come under Russian control.
Our ruling
A collage shared online claims to show Russian forces replacing the Ukrainian flag with the Soviet Flag in Mariupol in 2022.
Iterations of the collage have been online since at least 2015 and appear to feature screenshots of a video that shows pro-Russian forces taking control of the eastern Ukrainian city of Debaltseve.
It’s unrelated to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
We rate this False.
Our Sources
Instagram post, April 18, 2022
Tin Eye, reverse image search, April 30, 2022
YouTube, Raising the Soviet flag on Donbass, March 3, 2015
Visegrad24 tweet, April 18, 2022
The Guardian, Separatist commander killed in Ukraine, May 24, 2015
The Ukrainian Weekly, Looking back at the Battle of Debaltseve, March 8, 2019
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Images of Ukrainian flag being replaced with Soviet Union flag are from 2015, not 2022
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