CLAIM: Ukrainians published a photo from 2022 to depict the… North Korean “prisoner.”
CONCLUSION: In Google reverse image searches, dates do not always correspond to the upload date of an online photo. Often, Google’s results display information based on when a webpage was first indexed— in this case, February 24, 2022—or the last time it was crawled, rather than reflecting the page’s most recent updates. The photo in question was uploaded on December 27, 2024.
The claim appeared on the Russian disinformation network Pravda and various accounts on X, for example “Olga Bazova.”
North Korea has deployed thousands of soldiers to support Russian forces in Ukraine, with estimates ranging from 10,000 to 12,000 troops. The first North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region on December 26, 2024, succumbed to his injuries, according to South Korea’s Intelligence Service.
The photo presented as “proof” was identified through a Google reverse image search, which shows a timestamp of February 24, 2022 (highlighted in a red box). According to the claim, this date supposedly demonstrates that the image is not recent and does not depict the event as described by the Ukrainian side.
However, in Google reverse image searches, the dates do not always correspond to the upload date of a photo. For example, in the image below, taken from our own reverse search on Google dated December 28, 2024, one result appears to be from “14 days ago,” linking to an unrelated video.
This inconsistency occurs because Google’s search results often display information based on when a webpage was first indexed or last crawled, rather than reflecting the most recent updates to the page. This can cause discrepancies in dates associated with content, including images found via Google reverse image search. In the case of the examined image, it originates from a subreddit (r/UkraineWarVideoReport), a subcommunity within Reddit that was created on February 24, 2022, and has since been archived multiple times on the Wayback Machine (2,253 times). On February 24, 2022, UkraineWarVideoReport was archived 7 times (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), and the image of the “North Korean prisoner” is absent. Instead, it was uploaded on December 27, 2024.
Conclusion
In Google reverse image searches, dates do not always correspond to the upload date of an online photo. Often, Google’s results display information based on when a webpage was first indexed— in this case, February 24, 2022—or the last time it was crawled, rather than reflecting the page’s most recent updates. The photo in question was uploaded on December 27, 2024.