Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro “Teddy” Locsin Jr. praised Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as the “Hector” of his country after seeing a picture of him in fatigue uniform but this was not related to the Russian invasion.
The top diplomat on Sunday retweeted a picture of Zelensky wearing a military uniform which was posted by the Twitter account @Ukrainenews01.
It had the caption: “We need a million Retweets for the greatest president (heart and 100 sign emojis). He loves the country not the job (smiling-face-with-hearts emoji). #RussiaUkraineConflict #Putin #Ukraine #Russia.”
Locsin saw the tweet and wrote a tribute for Zelensky.
“A real man with a real life—not a low struggle for power and position but a real one with quite a bit of talent—before he became president (and) now that he is the Hector of the Ukrainian Iliad. ‘Is there no one else?’ Like him? Brad Pitt aka Achilles. Here’s 666,000 retweets,” he quote tweeted.
Hector is a character in Homer’s “The Illiad,” an ancient Greek epic poem set during the Trojan War.
He is the chief warrior of the Trojan army and is represented as an ideal warrior. He led the Trojans and their allies in defending the city of Troy against the Greeks.
While Locsin’s post was well-intentioned, the picture from the account he retweeted was misleading.
Old photo
A reverse image search showed the image appearing in a Reuters article dated April 21, 2021.
Its caption was the following: “Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits positions of armed forces near the frontline with Russian-backed separatists in Donbass region, Ukraine April 9, 2021.”
It was credited by Reuters to the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service.
Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t authorize “special military operations” on the country until Feb. 24, 2022.
The image of Zelensky in army fatigue was part of the article which reported him challenging Putin to meet in Donbass, Ukraine’s eastern region, for talks to end the conflict in the area.
At that time, both countries “have traded blame for rising clashes in the Donbass, where Ukrainian troops have battled Russian-backed forces in a conflict that Ukraine says has killed 14,000 people since 2014.”
‘I will stay in the capital’
Last Friday, Zelensky has vowed to stay in Ukraine capital Kyiv despite the threat of the Russian troops advancing towards the city.
“(The) enemy has marked me down as the number one target,” he was quoted as saying in a video before.
“My family is the number two target. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state,” the Ukraine president added.
“I will stay in the capital. My family is also in Ukraine,” he further said.
However, there is no news of Zelensky being on the frontlines of the invasion.
A February 28 article by The Guardian notes that the telephone has become his “most effective weapon” as he has been calling Western leaders to persuade them “to agree to a set of sanctions against Russia.”
Zelensky had a prolific career in the entertainment industry before entering politics.
He starred in several Ukrainian films and TV series, including popular political satire comedy “Servant of the People,” which ended in 2019. In that year, he launched and won his presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, latest reports note that a miles-long armored convoy of Russia was spotted within 17 miles of Kyiv despite the end of the initial peace talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegates.
