Is it true that a photo zone was held in Kyiv with the image of a bridge that collapsed in the USA?

At the end of March 2024, a photo allegedly taken on Khreshchatyk shortly after the emergency in the American state of Maryland made the rounds on social networks. We have verified the authenticity of this image.

In the photo you can see a girl posing in front of a photo of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, stylized as a huge postage stamp. March 26 this bridge near the American city of Baltimore collapsed after an out-of-control container ship crashed into one of its supports. The photo, allegedly taken in Kyiv, began to circulate on the same day in the Russian-language segment of the Internet with comments like “It’s a holiday for the stupid ones again.” In October 2022 in Kyiv near the city administration building installed a similar postage stamp depicting the moment of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge, as a result of which a fragment of the road surface collapsed and several railway tanks with fuel caught fire. The installation has become a popular place for city residents to photograph.

The photo went viral on Telegram, where it was shared by channels such as Colonelcassad (307,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Tynu40k Goblina (286,000), "Open Ukraine" (227,000) and "Sheikh Tamir"(147,000).

The collapse of a bridge in Maryland caused considerable resonance in Russia. In particular, soon after the incident, news spread across Russian-language Telegram channels that captain the container ship that rammed the bridge was Ukrainian, and how the disaster rejoice soldiers of the Ukrainian 79th separate air assault brigade. Both reports turned out to be false.

In the case of the “Verified” installation in the center of Kyiv, it was also not possible to find a single publication in the Ukrainian media that would confirm the existence of such a photo zone in March 2024. At the same time, there is no doubt that the photograph was taken near building of the Kyiv city administration on Khreshchatyk.

“Verified” conducted a reverse search on the image and found it in the Getty Images photo bank snapshot, almost identical to the one that spread across the Internet. It was taken in October 2022 by photographer Ed Ram. In the frame is a drawing of the exploding Crimean Bridge, stylized as a postage stamp.

As is obvious, the two photographs differ only in the image on the postage stamp. This means only one thing: the original photo of Ed Rahm has been digitally manipulated. They added a photo of the Baltimore bridge, published early on March 26 by Maryland Fire Rescue.

The earliest publication with a viral photo that “Verified” was able to detect appeared on the same day at 12:40 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “Satirator"(15,000 views). This resource positions itself as the “Terminator of political satire.” Apparently, the edited photograph from the publication of “Satirator”, when distributed through other channels, began to be taken seriously by readers (although it would have been extremely difficult to have time to display a new “stamp” in front of the Kyiv City Hall just hours after the disaster in Maryland).

25 minutes before “Satirator” Telegram channel “Mayday. Chronicle of a dive» (14,000 views) published video with an animated version of the same brand - an even more obvious example of satire, which, however, was less widespread. Judging by the low quality of the video, it was not the original source of a similar photograph - these are two independent jokes. A few days before it went viral became image based on the same photo by Ed Ram, only with a photoshopped photo of the DneproGES, which suffered from a Russian missile attack. Thus, it is more appropriate to talk about a meme here than about a deliberate fake.

Cover photo: social networks

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