On the eve of August 24, reports circulated online that France allegedly congratulated Ukraine on the upcoming Independence Day by installing an advertising stand with the wrong map and flag, on top of which an offensive word was written. We have verified the authenticity of the image.
Photos of a billboard allegedly located at a public transport stop began to be distributed on social networks on August 21, 2023. Reported, that the photo was taken somewhere in France, and the stand was installed by order of the authorities. The poster contains an inscription in French: “Happy Independence Day, Ukraine! All of Europe is with you." In addition, the image contains a map of the country without the territory of Crimea in the wrong colors of the national flag (blue should be on top and yellow should be on bottom), and someone put an English curse word on top of the card fuck.
Similar publications appeared in Telegram channels “Kot Kostyan - official channel"(104,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Yakov Kedmi"(73,000), "Russian format"(54,000), "Military observer"(51,000), Russia 🇷🇺 Live (40,000), "Kovpak's detachment"(22,000), "Crimea News"(21,000), "Urgent and accurate - news digest" (18,000), "Gagauz Republic" (12,000), "Rumble"(11,000), Zanoza (7600) and "Shaman Rahu"(4600). Photos of the supposed French congratulations can be found in public pages (examples here, here, here, here, here And here) and on users’ personal pages (here, here And here) “VKontakte”, as well as on some news websites.
“Verified” did not find any mention of such a poster in any authoritative Russian-, English- or French-language publication. The earliest publication that we tracked appeared on August 21, 2023 at 11:45 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “South Live💤” and received only 1800 views. Channel description reads, that this is the “Southern Bureau of Solovyov Live”, and indicates a connection with TV presenter Dmitry Bazhenov. Moreover, the original post contains the tag #subscriber writes. It was not possible to find a photo where the French greeting would have been photographed from a different angle, although such a poster would hardly have gone unnoticed by other social network users.
At the bottom of the stand, the letter combination JCDecaux is noticeable - this is the name of the transnational corporation whose headquarters located in the suburbs of Paris. Company is engaged placement of outdoor advertising, including at bus stops. "Verified" studied Facebook-JCDecaux account and found a similar photo there, published still July 30, 2023. This photo shows the billboard from the same angle as the viral photo, with the same shadows, building, car and people in the background. However, there was not a word about Ukraine on the original poster - in fact, it depicts work by transgender artist Pippa Garner entitled Specimen Under Glass.
Moreover, the original photo was not even taken in France. This can be understood at least by the letters AFA in the full name of the company indicated on the stand - such are available, for example, at Icelandic And Danish JCDecaux divisions. On the company's social networks TBC: “The streets of Copenhagen are filled with art from the Kunsthal Rotterdam biennale.” On the event website it says, the exhibition, which takes place on streets, train stations and bus stops in different regions of Denmark, is to explore advertising space and its potential use for artists to promote contemporary art throughout the country. "Verified" confirms that the photo was taken in the Danish capital, as a department store is visible in the background Magasin du Nord, located in the center of Copenhagen.
Thus, the authors of unreliable publications are distributing an edited photo that was not taken in France and in fact has no relation to Ukraine.
Cover photo: social networks / JCDecaux
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