Was an image of a man embracing a kitten while surrounded by rubble taken in Ukraine during the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? No, that's not true: The image was taken in 2018 in Turkey and is not related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on March 8, 2022. It has the picture of the man and the kitten with a one-word caption:
Ukraine.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook on March 10, 2022:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Mar 10 15:54 2022 UTC)
However, the image has nothing to do with Ukraine nor the war being waged there at the time of writing. The image shows then-83-year-old Ali Meşe of Turkey, who lost his home following an accidental stove fire. The Daily Mail reported that the kitten was Meşe's only surviving pet cat. The image was taken in 2018 by photographer İlhami Çetin. Footage of the aftermath of the fire can be found here.
More fact checks related to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict can be found here.
