Originally published 2022-02-26.
An emotional image can circulate with an incorrect explanation
The visible goodbye does not, by itself, reveal the family's destination or the father's intended role. Those details depend on the original upload and corroborating reporting. Reposts with a different political caption should be compared with that provenance, while the uploader's own description must also remain attributed rather than automatically accepted as neutral evidence.
A heartbreaking video showing a father saying goodbye to his daughter during evacuations from Gorlovka has gone viral on social media. Recent reports however say that the father was not in fact staying in Ukraine to fight the Russian troops.
The video was first shared by the Mayor of Gorlovka, Ivan Prikhodko, on VK on Monday. The description in the video says:
"Residents of Gorlovka are evacuated daily to Russia, fleeing Ukrainian aggression. Today we have witnessed the touching farewell of the head of the family to his wife and daughter, whom he saw off to Russia. The man remained in his city to defend the Donetsk Republic from the Armed Forces of Ukraine with weapons in his hands, with tears in his eyes."
Heartbreaking. And lesson of bravery. This family dream to nothing more than having a normal, free and prosperous family life. #StandWithUkriane https://t.co/bnNuI5XtYS
— Bernard-Henri Lévy (@BHL) February 25, 2022
Gorlovka, also known as Horlivka, is in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region and was under Russian-backed separatist control at the time of this report. It was recently recognised by Vladimir Putin as a sovereign state. (Strictly, Putin’s recognition on 21 February 2022 was of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, which controlled Gorlovka, not of the city itself.)
[Based on reporting by: 9Gag]
Horlivka since 2014
Separatists seized Horlivka’s police station on 14 April 2014 and the city administration building on 30 April 2014, and the city has remained mainly under Russian occupation since then. Its population, about 254,000 in 2014, was estimated at about 240,000 in 2022. After a referendum held from 23 to 27 September 2022, Putin announced on 30 September that Russia was annexing the territory; on 12 October 2022 the UN General Assembly condemned the annexation by 143 votes to 5, with 35 abstentions.
Sources: Wikipedia: Horlivka Wikipedia: Donetsk People’s Republic
Two competing captions do not create independent confirmation
A repost can misdescribe a farewell, while the first uploader can also frame it politically. The visible scene should therefore be separated from both accounts of destination and military intention. The place name and February 2022 setting help readers follow the provenance without adopting a disputed authority’s description as the article’s own neutral terminology.
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