No, This Is Woman Is Not a French Sniper
The Claim
A photo shows a female French sniper killed in a Russian airstrike in Ukraine during the 2003 Iraq war.
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Emerging story
Social media users, particularly on Twitter, are circulating an image of a woman they claim is a French sniper. According to the claim, she took part in the 2003 Iraq war and was killed in a Russian airstrike on the Azovstal factory in Ukraine.
Misbar’s Analysis
The Misbar team found the circulating to be misleading. The image's context was revealed through a reverse image search on CNN. The woman in the claim is neither French nor a sniper, but she was killed in a recent Russian airstrike.
Natalia Luhovska
Natalia Luhovska, the woman in the circulating photo, is a Ukrainian psychologist at the Azov Regiment in Azovstal, Mariupol, which was recently targeted by Russian airstrikes and shelling. Natalia is the mother of Ukrainian sniper Yuri Lugovsky, who died in 2018 while defending Ukraine with the Azov Regiment. Natalia joined the Battalion after her son died to continue his work with the soldiers at Azovstal, where she remained until she was killed. Her death was reported to the Chervonohrad City Council on May 5. Screenshots of the published article and video coverage are shown below.
Russian bombing of the Azovstal factory in Ukraine
As Russian forces attacked Mariupol, Ukrainian soldiers and civilians took shelter in the city's Azovstal steel plant. Russia had been besieging the plant for weeks, demanding the surrender of the Azov battalion's defenders. The Azovstal factory was built during Joseph Stalin's reign in the Soviet Union and was designed to contain bunkers and tunnels to withstand attacks. After days of negotiations, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Monday, May 16, that Ukrainian and Russian forces had agreed to evacuate civilians and wounded fighters from the Steel Plant.
France Opposed the Invasion of Iraq
Contrary to the claim that the sniper was French and took part in the Iraq war, French President Jacques Chirac stated in 2003 that his country opposed the invasion of Iraq and would vote against the US-British draft resolution in the Security Council. The vote sought to validate the start of a war against Iraq. "Iraq does not represent an immediate threat that would justify an immediate war," said President Chirac. France appealed to everyone's responsibility to uphold international law," and was convinced that war would destabilize the region.
According to the findings, the claim is misleading; the woman in the photo is a Ukrainian psychologist, not a French sniper.
