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Is this photo of crowded train station taken in Ukraine as claimed?

A user on Twitter shared a photograph of a crowded train station he claimed was of  Ukrainians attempting to flee after Russia’s invasion of the country.

The alleged photograph was truly taken in Kharkiv train station during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,  as millions of people were attempting to flee the country. Tim Mak, NPR’s investigative correspondent in Ukraine, was one of the first to share the picture online. This claim is true. 

Full Text

Amidst the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, a user on Twitter, Rotimi Adeosun (RMA), (@adeosunm) tweeted a photograph of a crowded train station he claimed to be the Kharkiv train station in Ukraine. The user implied that the crowd at the train station were Ukrainians attempting to flee the country because of the Russian invasion. 

“Behold Kharkiv Railway Station in Ukraine.” Mr Adeosun wrote, “Let warmongers know war is not a child’s play and it is very dangerous.”

A screenshot of the alleged claim

The same image was also tweeted by NEXTA (@nexta_tv) with the caption: 

“Photo of the #Kharkhiv railway station”. 

The tweet attracted over 20 thousand reactions and was retweeted by over 9 thousand users across Twitter. 

A screenshot of the same post by NEXTA

The claim received a plethora of comments; while some users felt sorry for the struggling crowd in the picture, others held distinct opinions. 

One user, Yeahnomaybenot (@Yeahnomaybenot), felt the crises will only escalate COVID-19 cases across Europe since the large crowd at the train stations are apparently not abiding by the distancing regulations. 

“Sadly, I think this will soon cause a new Covid outbreak/strain. Europe needs to prepare for this hypothetical disaster right away. Ongoing war + millions of refugees + new Covid surge would be devastating to the whole of Europe. If only we could do something to stop the war.”

Another user, Brian Postlewait (@cityofpeace) simply feels the situation is a humanitarian disaster. 

“Humanitarian disaster. This picture is from Kharkiv #Ukraine️.” he comments. 

In the recent past, multiple images and videos were maliciously and falsely used to depict the crises. This reality has misled many and forced others to make decisions based on fake information, thus calling for reasons for this information to be authenticated.  

Verification

When DUBAWA conducted a Yandex image reverse search on the image, results traced the earliest online appearance of the photograph to a tweet by Tim Mak (@timkmak), who is an Investigative Correspondent for NPR in Ukraine.

Mr Mak, who tweeted the photograph on March 7th, captioned that he received the photograph from an aide to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“An aide to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs sends along this photo of the train station in the embattled northeast town of Kharkiv.”

A screenshot of Tim Mak tweet, the earliest appearance of the photograph online

Apparently, the incident at the Kharkiv train station truly occurred and was reported by multiple credible media outlets.   

In a news report by the Mirror.co.uk, the image was featured alongside the headline:

“Thousands of Ukrainians pour into train station fleeing war-ruined Kharkiv” a day after  Tim Mak shared it. 

A screenshot of a news report by the Mirror.co.uk featuring the same picture

Additionally, several other videos and photographs have surfaced that show a similar scene at the same Kharkiv train station and on the same date as the image was noticed to have appeared (7th March). For example,  a video  from a news report by The Guardian, showed a massive crowd at Kharkiv train station striving to get on board. 

Screenshot of a news report by the Guardian showing crowd of Ukrainian citizens at the Kharkiv train station 

To further confirm the authenticity of the photograph, DUBAWA ran a forensic analysis of the alleged picture on Forensically and results show that it was neither doctored nor altered. 

A screenshot of the results from forensically shows the picture is not altered

Conclusion 

The photograph was truly taken in Kharkiv train station during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,  at a time millions of people were attempting to flee the country. Tim Mak, NPR’s investigative correspondent in Ukraine, was one of the first to share the picture online and he said the news organization received the picture from an aide to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Hence, this claim is true. 

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