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Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022

Does a photo of a woman riding a bus with an AK-47 rifle show ‘life in Ukraine now’?

Sarah Thompson, Lead Stories

no

A photo of a woman looking at her phone on a bus while her AK-47 is propped against the window has been circulating online since late March 2020 — nearly two years before the Russian escalation at the Ukraine border. 

Much about the photo is unclear. Some believe it was shot in Belarus.

Some commenters thought they recognized the woman as a Russian model. Lead Stories was unable to trace the photo to any of her known social media accounts or to identify the photographer.

Lead Stories spoke with weapons experts who noted there appeared to be a groove in the rifle's magazine, indicating this was likely an airsoft replica — the type of equipment used in a simulated warfare sport.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

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