At the turn of 2022 and 2023, reports circulated on the Internet that 3D drawings had appeared in Spain and the United States, in which the President of Ukraine was represented as an insatiable insect. We checked whether these graffiti existed in reality.
Madrid
On December 15, 2022, a photo allegedly taken in the capital of Spain began to be widely distributed. How reported “Izvestia”, “graffiti appeared” on the streets of Madrid (in the plural, although only one photograph is given in the note) depicting the President of Ukraine in the form of a large locust: eyes, mandibles, wings and limbs like an insect were added to the body and face of Vladimir Zelensky. Together with other smaller locusts, whose wings are painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, he is gnawing on the flag of the European Union. Publications with a photograph of this drawing are available in Telegram channels "Solovyov"(248,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "RT in Russian"(205,000), "Dmitry Vasilets"(203,000), Voblya (152,000), "First People's"(152,000), "Mriya"(137,000), "Voice of Mordor"(125,000), "Zakhar Prilepin"(123,000), "Zl⭕️th proof️"(120,000), "Ukraine.ru"(110,000), "Ostashko! Important"(108,000), "Federation"(105,000), Putin TG Team (77,000), "Yakov Kedmi" (66,000) and "Sexton"(65,000). On VKontakte similar posts can be found in public pages “News"(294,000), "General Staff Portfolio"(102,000), "TV channel "Tsargrad""(77,000), "Solovyov live"(20,000), "Ren-TV | News"(16,000), Iz.ru (12,000) and "Radio Sputnik"(10,000). The graffiti was also reported on the websites “Federal News Agency", EADaily and on someothersnewsresources. Also, photo of graffiti shared and the official Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in Spain.
Originally photo of street art with locusts and Zelensky December 14, 2022 posted on the Instagram* account @typicaloptical with 320 subscribers at the time of writing this text. According to the page description, Typical Optical is a group of Polish artists. At the same time, according to post in the social networks of Vladimir Solovyov, the authors of graffiti in Spain “can definitely compete with the Poles, who depicted Zelensky as a black hole.” “Verified” has already analyzed two photos with 3D graffiti from the same artists, allegedly taken in Warsaw And Paris and depicting Zelensky as a black hole - in both cases there was photomontage. Only if previously the Typical Optical account posted an entire photo in one post (posts about Warsaw and Paris have already been deleted), now one photo is divided into nine parts and duplicated in its entirety in stories. This is probably done to bypass Meta* algorithms, marking false information disseminated by users.
In the captions for all parts of the photo, in addition to the phrase “Go home, locust! Thank you” in English, there is a geotag and hashtags that indicate that the viral photo was taken in Madrid. "Verified" has established the exact location: this square Cortes (Plaza de las Cortes) in the center of the Spanish capital, next to which located building of the Congress of Deputies of Spain. To the same conclusion with the help of colleagues from the Spanish fact-checking agency Maldita fact checkers came from the Georgian project “Myth detector"and also AFP.
In addition, on December 27, at the request of the editors of “Myth Detector,” Tinatin Japaridze, an employee of the organization The Critical Mass, went to the location where this street art was supposed to be located. She provided a couple of photographs from Cortez Square, where there are no traces of Zelensky graffiti on the asphalt.
In none of the social networks, neither we nor the journalists from RFI (Radio France Internationale) were able to find a publication with a photograph of street art that was not taken from the Typical Optical account. And this despite the fact that thousands of Madrid residents and tourists pass through Cortes Square every day (it is located in the very center of the city near from the Prado Museum). Moreover, in RFI declare, that they contacted a company (colleagues do not specify its name), located directly opposite the place where the graffiti should be. According to employees who pass by this location every day, they have never seen this art installation with Zelensky and have not heard about it from colleagues or acquaintances. Villa Real Hotel Management, located near the place in the photo, in a conversation with AFP too denied the existence of such graffiti.
The earliest entry about Spanish graffiti with the keywords “Madrid locusts”, in addition to the Typical Optical post, we found in the Telegram channel “Before everyone else. Well almost. Special Operation": there is a photo posted December 15, 2022 at 11:10 Moscow time (12,000 views). Regular readers of “Verified” are already well aware of the name of this channel, since this is not the first time becomes the primary source of disinformation.
New York
On January 11, 2023, reports of a new 3D graffiti began spreading: again with Zelensky in the form of a giant locust, but now with the coat of arms of Ukraine on the wing and in New York. In many posts, the photo of the drawing is captioned: “Locusts are devouring the US budget.” This street art was talked about in Telegram channels “Observer"(227,000 views), "Dmitry Nicotin"(225,000), Kosti (218,000), "Scott Ritter on Telegram"(197,000), "Bullet"(185,000), "Ostashko! Important"(121,000), "Horde"(117,000), "Polite people 🅉 SVO"(96,000), "Gasparyan"(94,000), "Sexton"(87,000), "What's going on?"(84,000), Ura.ru (65,000) and "Mriya"(54,000), on VKontakte (examples here, here, here And here), Twitter (here And here) and on somenewswebsites, including "Constantinople"
Photo of an art installation supposedly made in New York, by Typical Optical posted on his Instagram on January 10, again in the form of nine posts and stories. At the same time, they reported that the social network deletes images with their work, so they created Telegram channel in case Instagram blocks the account. Also in the photo description there is the English phrase “Locusts continue to eat up budgets around the world!” and a geotag indicating that the photo was taken in New York's Central Park.
Fact checkers from Georgian projects "Myth detector" And "Fact meter", as well as from AFP Using the Google Street View service, we determined that what we were looking for place is actually located in Central Park, namely on Center Drive (Center Drive).
January 12, two days after the photo was published on Instagram @typicaloptical, AFP editorial asked check the location of the alleged graffiti of the New York journalist and teacher Fordham University Peter Greene. He reported that there were no traces of paint or crayons on the asphalt.
On January 13, at the request of the “Myth Detector,” a digital media specialist and master’s student in the media management program at The New School University went to the same location to check. Keta Bagashvili. She also confirmed that there was no graffiti in that area, providing several photos and video.
On January 16, at the request of Fact Meter, a journalist from the American fact-checking organization Lead Stories visited the same place. According to him, in that section of the park there were no traces of graffiti depicting Zelensky, which can be seen in the photos provided.
Fact checkers from Lead Stories reportthat the alley captured in the viral photo is located in an area with high pedestrian traffic, which is usually included in sightseeing tours. Central Park itself is an iconic landmark visited by many tourists and locals. At the same time, neither “Verified”, nor Lead Stories, nor AFP were able to find any news articles for January about the appearance of graffiti with locusts and Zelensky in the park, or other photographs of this street art.
In addition, Lead Stories was able to speak with local workers, such as rickshaw driver Anton Chavuschi from Romania. According to Chavuski, he was at the place from the viral photo “yesterday and the day before yesterday” (that is, January 14 and 15), but did not see the drawing: “I pass by almost every day because I am looking for clients. I didn't see this. I would have noticed that. I know Zelensky." Fact checkers also interviewed four other men working as cab drivers in Central Park, including one Russian speaker and one from Turkey. They all said that this place was part of their daily route and that they would recognize Zelensky if there was graffiti with his image there. But none of them had seen viral street art. The press service of NYC Parks (a division of the mayor's office, which is also responsible for Central Park) responded to Lead Stories' request: “Employees could not find this graffiti.” Christina Hansen, spokeswoman for the park's horse-drawn carriage operators, Jan. 12 reported AFP that none of the cab drivers saw similar drawings.
According to our data, the mass distribution of the photo of the drawing began the next day after its publication on Typical Optical’s social networks: January 11, 2023 at 11:56 Moscow time posted in the Putin TG Team Telegram channel (87,000 views). In addition, the Putin TG Team channel more than once was becoming “hero” of our other texts (and also talked about “graffiti” in Madrid).
Thus, both of the reports we examined about the appearance of graffiti discrediting the Ukrainian president in Spain and the United States are false. Photos of these street drawings, most likely mounted in graphic editors, were originally published by anonymous authors. They pose as independent Polish artists and this is not the first time they have published messages about street art depicting Zelensky, which later turn out to be disinformation.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: collage “Verified” / @typicaloptical
Fake
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