Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, many photos related to the war have been posted and shared on social media. One of them is a picture showing a soldier kissing a small baby. The soldier in the picture claimed a Ukrainian military member who kissed his small baby before going to war against the Russian invasion. The picture went viral on social media in Cambodia. After running a reverse image search, however, it is found the claim is false.
Social Media Claim
Since the beginning of March, a picture showing a soldier kissing a small baby had been widely posted and shared on social media. The picture comes with a caption implying the soldier is a Ukrainian military member who kissed his small baby before going to war against the Russian invasion.
The claim over the picture had been widely shared, with more than 1.3K comments and 8.4K reactions made by Facebook users.
A capture of the social media post is shown below with a caption translated “May God return him safe and sound to his family… 
The same claim was posted by another Facebook user which can be seen through a link available here.
The same picture had been viral on social media in Cambodia too since the beginning of March. A Facebook page posted the same picture with a caption praying for the Ukrainian soldier. The post had been shared more than 100 times with many comments and reactions from Khmer-speaking social media users.
Below is the capture of the social media post in Khmer which came with a Ukrainian flag, an implication showing the Ukrainian soldier.
The same claim can be seen with a link here or another link here or the third link available here as well.
Below is a capture of the claim that went viral on social media in Cambodia the last month.
Fact Check
Fact Crescendo Cambodia began a verification over the claim by running Google Reverse Image Search which led us to find out the truth below.
We found the same photo on the Facebook page of Welcome Home Blog which shared it in September 2012. The original photo shared by the Facebook page shows the soldier in the U.S. military uniform with his name as well.
By comparing, the original photo was digitally edited to hide the identification of the military member.
The soldier is a U.S. military member sent to a station in Germany, and upon his return back home, he grabbed and kissed his baby boy after he got off the plane, according to the post dated back to September 02, 2012.
The Facebook page also shared a link to its article in July 2011. The article reveals the soldier’s name, Bednarik. Unfortunately, the link is broken.
Conclusion
Fact Crescendo Cambodia found out the claim over the photo mentioned above is false. The soldier kissing a small baby is not Ukrainian. He is a U.S. military member who was sent back home more than 10 years ago after completing a military mission in Germany.
Title:Is the soldier in the photo a Ukrainian military member?
Fact Check By: Jay UdomResult: False
