Kyiv and other cities’ defenses appeared to be exposed to the relatively new and devastating—though perhaps not especially effective—threat.

Some even have taken matters into their own hands, prompting a warning from local authorities asking civilians not to use firearms against the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

But is a photo of a bare-chested man leaning out of his apartment window with a rifle to shoot down an incoming enemy drone real?

The Claim

A viral tweet on October 17, 2022, appeared to show a man leaning out of his home window and aiming a hunting rifle into the sky.

“Coffee, cigarette, balcony, gun, trying to shoot down Iranian drones,” the caption to the tweet said.

The claim appeared to align with widespread reports of resistance from the local population to the Russian invasion, both in cities coming under Russian missile strikes and those under occupation.

The Facts

As dozens of missiles and drone strikes continued to pound key infrastructure and civilian buildings in Kyiv and across most of Ukraine this week, the capital city’s administrators warned civilians off attempting to take down the “kamikaze” drones, which are reportedly supplied to Russia by Iran.

The Iran-made Shahed drones, which according to Western intelligence agencies’ analysis Russia has rebranded as Geran-2, are packed with explosives and are programmed to loiter overhead before nosediving into a target.

The low-flying unmanned craft are very hard for radars to detect, though the distinctive “buzzsaw” sound that they make, and for which Ukrainians dubbed them “mopeds,” makes them easy to spot with the naked eye.

Amid the devastation that the spate of “kamikaze” assault has wrought, videos and photos of law enforcement officers and civilians attempting to shoot down the drones spread online.

Some videos appeared to show police officers doing just that, and allegedly succeeding in taking one down, an incident that was later reported in Ukrainian media.

However, the photo of the man in a window aiming a rifle into the sky is an example of out-of-context content.

A reverse image search of the image brings up a number of articles dated June 2021, which mention a man, reportedly high on drugs, opening fire from his apartment window in Kyiv.

A keyword search also revealed more details of the incident, based on a June 2021 post from Kyiv Patrol on its Telegram channel.

According to the post, patrol officers were called to Akademik Efremov Street in the capital as several residents of the apartment building complained that they heard gunshots and screams from the fourth floor.

Arriving at the scene, the patrol officers saw a man looking out of the window, holding an object that looked like a rifle.

“The patrol officers spoke with the man—he opened the door for them and let them into the apartment, where the inspectors saw items that looked like weapons and drugs,” the Patrol Police said in a statement.

A 51-year-old resident of the apartment block was detained by the police later that day.

It is not unusual for old or otherwise unconnected content to resurface and even go viral on the back of major global news stories. A common trope of misinformation, it is particularly prevalent in areas of conflict, where it is hard to immediately verify its provenance, as Newsweek Fact Check has reported previously.

The Ruling

Misleading Material.

While the photo of a Kyiv man leaning out of a window and holding his rifle is real, it is actually from 2021 and is not connected to the initiative to combat Russian drones over the capital.

The man was reportedly on drugs at the time and was swiftly detained by the local law enforcement officers.

FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK