Photoshopped Zelenskyy, Biden and the First Lady of the USA Went Viral on Social Networks
This announcement is untrue. The viral photograph showing, the alleged American President, Joe Biden, putting his hand on Zelenskyy’s buttocks is digitally mastered. It is a manipulated version of an official photograph shared by the journalist team of the White House showing how the First Lady, Jill Biden, and her husband are touching Zelenskyy’s back with their hands clearly placed in the middle
This announcement is untrue. The viral photograph showing, the alleged American President, Joe Biden, putting his hand on Zelenskyy’s buttocks is digitally mastered. It is a manipulated version of an official photograph shared by the journalist team of the White House showing how the First Lady, Jill Biden, and her husband are touching Zelenskyy’s back with their hands clearly placed in the middle
Photograph shared on Facebook, showing how the American President, Joe Biden is touching the buttocks of the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy in front of the journalists and the photo-reporters during his historic visit to Washington last Wednesday, became viral on the social networks. Nevertheless, the photograph was photoshopped i.e., untrue.
As Mirko Popov puts it – Someone has to keep your back for things to keep moving in life!!!
Last week, the historic visit of Washington by Ukraine’s President, Volodymir Zelenskyy, whose country has been under Russian invasion for 10 months now, caused a great deal of public commotion.
The visit however, was also a target for disinformation. One such piece of disinformation was the viral photograph of Zelenskyy standing between Biden and the First Lady of the USA, Jill Biden whereas the US President is depicted feeling, allegedly, the buttocks of his Ukrainian counterpart (here, here, here and here).
Truly, Zelenskyy visited Washingtom last Wednesday and both leaders spent a great deal of time together. Subsequently, almost every public moment was recorded on video or photographed from several angles. One of the photographs shows President Biden and his wife touching Zelenskyy’s back with their hands clearly positioned in the middle.
The official White House photographer made the actual photo. No other person form the official White House staff had access to that particular angle. The search of official profiles on social networks of the White House show that this photograph was shared from the profiles of US First Lady on both Facebook and Twitter with the following text:
President Zelenskyy, we hope that you will relay our love and support to Olena and your children and to all families in Ukraine.
President Zelenskyy, we hope you take our love and support back to Olena and your children, and all the families of Ukraine. 💕 pic.twitter.com/z1uqAAl8B8
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) December 22, 2022
Watchfully looking at the two phorographs blended into one will draw attention to details that pinpoint that the photograph was photoshopped i.e., amended.
The fact that the shadows on both photographs are identical, including the curls on the hair of Jill Biden, with no movement on the part of any of the people present on the photograph indicates that one and the same photo is in question, but photoshopped.
The official photograph clearly shows the crimps on Zelenskyy’s pullover that have been artificially pressed and erased in the edited version where the position of Biden’s hand is changed.
The amended version shows an unnatural angle of Biden’s shoulder while the length of his hand seems to be unproporationately longer for his body.
Due to all this, we assess that this published piece of news is untrue – Biden did not put his hand on Zelenskyy’s buttocks. The viral photograph is a digitally mastered version of the official photograph shared by the journalistic team of the White House.
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This article has been produced within the project Fact-Checking the Progress of North Macedonia towards the EU, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. The article, originally published by Truthmeter,, is made possible by the support of the American non-profit foundation NED (National Endowment for Democracy). The content of this article is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, NED or their partners.
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