Mingcha｜“Russian soldiers surrendered in Kursk Oblast”, are there pictures and the truth?
2024-08-15
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Quick Facts
- The picture circulating online that "more and more Russian soldiers surrendered in Kursk Oblast" is not true. The picture was taken from a video released by the Ukrainian Prisoner Treatment Coordination Headquarters. What it actually reflects is that on April 16 last year, 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war were released and returned to Ukraine under the coordination of the agency on Orthodox Easter Day, not that Russian soldiers surrendered in Kursk Oblast.
- Currently, the Ukrainian army continues to advance into Russia. Following Kursk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast declared a state of emergency on August 14.
Background
On August 6, Ukraine launched an attack on Russia's Kursk Oblast, followed by fierce conflict between the two sides in the state.
Since August 10, a picture has been circulating on social media platforms, allegedly showing "more and more Russian soldiers surrendering in Kursk." The soldiers in the picture are divided into two groups. According to the flag and arrow in the picture, the smaller group on the left is Ukrainian soldiers, and the larger group on the right is Russian prisoners of war.
Screenshots of online rumors about the law.
Check
The pictures circulating online show Russian soldiers surrendering in Kursk Oblast?
After a reverse search of the picture circulated on the Internet, it was found that the picture was actually taken from a video released by the Ukrainian Headquarters for Coordination of the Treatment of Prisoners of War (Koordinaᆭійний штаб з питань поводження з військовополоненими) on April 17, 2023. The picture circulated on the Internet was mirrored and flipped from the original video.
On April 17, 2023, the Ukrainian Prisoner Treatment Coordination Headquarters released a video saying that Russia released 130 Ukrainian soldiers. It can be seen from the video that some of the released Ukrainian soldiers were unable to move or were supported by their companions.
According to the Ukrainian Prisoner Treatment Coordination Headquarters, Russia released another 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war in April 2023, including soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, members of the Border Guard and the National Guard. With the assistance of the agency, all released persons returned to Ukraine on April 16, the day of Orthodox Easter.
The news also pointed out that most of the released soldiers had previously fought in Bakhmut, Soledar, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Luhansk, and the oldest soldier was 58 years old and the youngest was 21. In addition, the Ukrainian Prisoner Treatment Coordination Headquarters did not disclose more details about the release of Ukrainian soldiers and whether Ukraine would release an equal number of Russian prisoners of war.
A video released by Ukraine's headquarters for the coordination of the treatment of prisoners of war showed the released soldiers celebrating by draping themselves in the Ukrainian flag.
According to Reuters, the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, Russia and Ukraine conducted a large-scale prisoner exchange earlier this month. According to the agreement reached by the two sides, Russia released 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war in exchange for 106 Russian soldiers.
Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the two sides have regularly exchanged prisoners of war, but this action was suspended in the second half of last year. The most recent prisoner exchange took place on July 17 this year. Under the mediation of the UAE, the two sides exchanged a total of 190 prisoners of war.
The picture circulated online also shows that the picture is a screenshot of the video cover of a channel called ANKA Daily New on the YouTube video platform. The video received 390,000 views in just 7 hours after it was uploaded, but the video is currently no longer available on the channel. However, in other videos on the channel, the same national flag and arrow logo as in the circulated picture can still be seen.
According to the introduction of the ANKA Daily New channel, the channel focuses on sharing first-hand information about the latest developments in Ukraine, and claims to follow the requirements and guidelines for accuracy in news reporting when producing news and content. However, after checking other content on the channel, it was found that it only started updating content related to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict six days ago, after Ukraine attacked the Kursk region, and the previous content was all hand-woven teaching videos. As of press time on the 14th, all content related to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the channel has been cleared.
The homepage of the ANKA Daily New channel shows that the channel began updating the so-called latest first-hand information about Ukraine six days ago, but as of press time on the 14th, all content related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict is no longer visible.
On August 6, the Ukrainian armed forces launched a large-scale cross-border attack on Kursk Oblast, and have now advanced dozens of kilometers into Russian territory. On the 12th, the acting governor of Kursk Oblast reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that a total of 28 settlements and about 2,000 people in Kursk Oblast were controlled by the Ukrainian army.
So far, more than 120,000 people have been evacuated from the border area of Kursk Oblast, and the Ukrainian army's attack has killed 12 civilians and injured 121. After Kursk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast became the second region in Russia to declare a state of emergency on the 14th.
In summary, the picture circulating online that "more and more Russian soldiers surrendered in Kursk Oblast" is untrue. The picture was taken from a video released by the Ukrainian Prisoner Treatment Coordination Headquarters. What it actually reflects is that on April 16 last year, 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war were released and returned to Ukraine under the coordination of the agency on the day of Orthodox Easter, not that Russian soldiers surrendered in Kursk Oblast. Currently, the Ukrainian army continues to advance in Russia. Following Kursk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast announced a state of emergency on the 14th.
Ming Investigator Feng Meng
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