The girl is the 9-year-old daughter of photographer Oleksii Kyrychenko from Kiev. The photo was taken on February 22nd, 2022 , two days before the start of the war. The photographer and father of the girl wanted to use his work to draw attention to a possible impending war and published these pictures on Facebook and Instagram. The photos are intended to send a message and show that there will soon be innocent injuries caused by the war.
The picture went viral because it was shared on social media by Donald Tusk (former President of the European Council) on March 11, 2022. “Please don’t tell her that tougher sanctions would be too costly for Europe,” the Polish politician commented on his post on Facebook and Twitter. Donald Tusk was alluding to the fears of some European economic sectors about a further escalation of sanctions against Russia.
The girl with a gun and a lollipop
On Facebook, Oleksii Kyrychenko tells the story behind this photo:
History of a photo.
My name is Oleksii. I have a wife and three children. I had worked as an engineer in a Kyiv company before the war. Lived in his own house in a small town near Kiev. Photo is my hobby. I have completed a few photography art courses. The nervous tension was very high in the last weeks before the war. The West and the intelligence services told us about inevitable war, but it was unbelievable to us.
At the same time, Western society showed that it was “concerned” and did not impose sanctions on Russia. I decided to take a few photos that might raise awareness of the possible war. I want to show what Ukraine can look like in the near future.
As you could see, I took this photo on February 22, 2022, two days before the war. This is a photo of my daughter with a candy and a shotgun in an abandoned building. The gun is mine, the daughter can't shoot. She's 9. Of course the gun wasn't loaded when the photo was taken.
That day I posted the photo in a few FB photo groups. They were immediately banned in those with Russian admins. There was also ambiguousness in the other's reaction. Many people criticized the photo of a child with a gun. Finally, the photo only remains in one group. And the day after tomorrow, without declaring war, at 4 a.m., Putin attacked us. On the second day of the war, Russian troops began to land near Kiev and threatened to take our city.
In a hurry we drove to our friends in western Ukraine. I registered with the military accounting department, but I haven't mobilized yet because we have the long lines. And the people with military experience are first mobilized. A few days ago I uploaded this photo to the Ukrainian FB hobby group for growing cacti and suddenly it spread all over the world and became a meme.
Then this photo was posted by Donald Tusk (thanks, Donald!) in his tweet to the European Parliament. Now the attitude towards these photos is completely different, as far as the world has seen the true face of the Russian invasion.
Conclusion:
Photographer Oleksii Kyrychenko from Kiev published photos of his daughter two days before the start of the war to draw attention to the impending war. The photos are intended to send a message and show that there will soon be innocent injuries caused by the war. The picture went viral because the former President of the European Council shared the picture.
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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 )

