He used the photo along with the message: “Just don’t tell her please that tougher sanctions would be too expensive for Europe”. Where did the photo of the Ukrainian girl with a lollipop and rifle come from? The photo, a powerful statement, has been widely shared across social media since it was published and has been tweeted and posted to Facebook by Donald Tusk, former Polish Primer Minister and President of the European Council. He's now the President of the European People's Party. The photo was taken by Alexei Kirichenko in Kiev, and is of his nine-year old daughter. He posted it to his Facebook account on Friday, with the simple message: “Young girl with candy”.

In the comments he is asked if it is his daughter, and he replies that it is. He is asked if the photo was staged to “ to highlight the horrors of Putin invading a nation and putting civilians, including children, in danger.” He explains that the photo is staged, and that he gave his daughter the gun, unloaded, for the photo. Children dying in Ukraine