The photo does not show players from Ukraine’s football club donning military gear - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 8, 2022
A photo through a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that players from Ukraine’s football club have donned military gear to fight in the ongoing war in Ukraine. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of players from Dynamo football club who wore military uniform to fight in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Fact: The people in the photo belong to a Ukrainian organisation named Gonor, which is not a football club. According to news reports, some sports people including football players took up arms voluntarily to fight for Ukraine. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When reverse image search is done on the photo, the same photo was found in an Instagram post by a group named ‘Gonor’. The group posted the photo on 25 February 2022, which was immediately after the beginning of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. There was no mention of any football club in the posted photo.
When Reuters asked one of the members seen in the photo, who also posted this picture on his Instagram page, he said, “We are members of Gonor, not FC Dynamo.” Reuters also confirmed with the social media manager of Dynamo Kyiv that the photo does not show any Dynamo Kyiv football players. Gonor is an organisation in Ukraine, not a football club, according to its YouTube channel.
According to news reports (here and here), some sportspersons including football players took up arms voluntarily to fight for Ukraine. However, the photo does not show the members of a football club in Ukraine.
To sum it up, the photo does not show players from Ukraine’s football club donning military gear.