The claim
Allegedly, a photo proves that US Admiral Eric Olson was taken into custody by Russian soldiers at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
Our conclusion
The photo is a month older than claimed and from a different location, Olson has been retired for 11 years, and Russia would have publicized such a high-profile capture long ago.
Rule of thumb: If even channels known for official Russian propaganda such as RT or Sputnik do not record a report, but an event can only be read about in obscure Telegram channels or from relevant accounts and pages, even users who support Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine are allowed , assume that it is a fake.
Like the photo that supposedly shows the arrested US Admiral Eric Olson.
The claim
A photo with several soldiers in it is shared on social networks. Apparently one of them is US Admiral Eric Olson.
Accordingly, Olson was taken into custody at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol in mid-May.
The fact check
Several reasons speak against the authenticity of the claim, apart from the fact that not a single large, pro-Russian media, but only hidden Telegram channels and blogs known for false claims report on it. Furthermore, one might actually expect that Russia would make a very big and loud noise if a US admiral had actually been arrested.
Olson has been retired since 2011
The former head of the United States Special Operations Command retired in 2011 after 38 years of military service . Admiral Eric Thor Olson was born and is therefore already 70 years old - not exactly the age to be actively involved in a war zone.
Of course, this alone is not solid proof, as he could have been in Ukraine as a secret advisor (as would certainly be argued), but there are other facts that speak against the above claims.
Even the original photo description doesn't mention Olson
As already mentioned above: very well-known pro-Russian media reported widely on it. The widespread photo, which is said to show the arrested Admiral Olson, even comes from the Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya and was published on April 14, 2022 (see HERE ), the rights to the photo belong to Sputnik .
According to the description, the photo shows Ukrainian prisoners of war in Luhansk taking part in a memorial event. is 287 km away from the alleged place of origin of the photo (Mariupol) (205 km as the crow flies) .
The times are illogical
At the beginning of March, Mariupol was completely surrounded by Russian troops. However, an important military figure like US Admiral Eric Olson would probably have been evacuated from Mariupol in the first days of the war if he had been there. Due to the complete closure of Mariupol, he could not have been smuggled in between March and May.
The photo was taken in mid-April. On May 17, it was circulated that he had been taken into custody at the Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol, but it was not until May 20 that Russia announced that all militants at the besieged Azovstal Steel Plant had surrendered.
Let's summarize:
- Olson has been retired since 2011
- If he were an important military advisor, he would have been evacuated from the zone in the first days of the war
- The photo was taken in mid-April, without any mention of Olson
- The photo was not taken at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, but in Luhansk, 285 kilometers away
- There is no evidence to date that NATO officers and/or US military are in Ukraine
- Such a capture would have been very prominently displayed by Russia
Hard claims require hard facts. But the only "evidence" is a photo, which is neither current nor from the location mentioned, and which only shows the lower half of the face of a Ukrainian prisoner who, without any further evidence, is claimed to be Olson.
AFP colleagues were able to contact Olson via the career network LinkedIn . On May 24, several days after the alleged capture, Olson confirmed that either he was not in Russian captivity or that cell phone reception in the Russian prison was very good - but the former was the case.
The claim can therefore be classified as false.
Also interesting:
Pro-Russian groups are spreading the news that Ukraine was allegedly planning to attack Russia or the Russian-occupied territories in Donbass.
A manual serves as proof. Handbook does not prove that Ukraine wanted to attack Russia
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )