Months after the release of a film that questions who took an iconic Vietnam War image of a naked girl running from a napalm attack, The Associated Press said Tuesday it had found “no definitive evidence” to warrant changing a nearly 53-year-old photo credit.
The AP released a 96-page report — its second examination in less than four months — about who actually took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo credited to Nick Ut that became one of the defining images of the 20th century. A documentary shown at Sundance in January, “The Stringer,” asserts that it was actually shot by another man, Nguyen Thanh Nghe, but that credit was given to Ut, an AP staff photographer.
The AP concluded that it was “possible” Ut took the photo, but it was unable to be proven conclusively due to the passage of time, absence of key evidence, limitations of technology and the deaths of several key people involved.
At the same time, AP found no proof that Nguyen took the photo, the report said.
“We left nothing uncovered that we're aware of and we've done it with a great deal of respect to everybody involved,” said Derl McCrudden, an AP vice president who heads global news production. “It makes no difference to us if we changed the credit, but it has to be based on facts and evidence. And there is no definitive evidence proving that Nick Ut did not take this picture.”
The AP's latest study involved further interviews, examination of cameras, building a 3D model of the scene and studying photo negatives that survive from June 8, 1972, the date of the photo.
The report revealed inconsistencies on both sides. The prize-winning photo was apparently taken on a Pentax camera, not a Leica as Ut had long claimed. Nguyen told AP he was not working for NBC that day, as was earlier asserted. Of 10 people on the scene that day that the AP reached, Nguyen is the only one who believes that Ut didn't take the picture, the report said.
The report said that believing Nguyen's story would require several leaps of faith, including believing that the only time he ever sold a photo to a Western news agency it turned out to be one of the most famous images of the century.
Ut, who has strongly maintained that the photo is his, said Tuesday he was gratified by the findings of AP's investigation.
“This whole thing has been very difficult for me and has caused great pain,” he said in a statement. “I'm glad the record has been set straight.”
David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
FILE - South Vietnamese forces follow after terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, center, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places, June 8, 1972. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
FILE - Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Nick Ut, center, flanked by Kim Phuc, left, holds the" Napalm Girl", his Pulitzer Prize winning photo as they wait to meet with Pope Francis during the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, May 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid and apparently snubbing U.S.-led peace efforts as the war approaches the four-year mark.
Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.
One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said. The daytime temperature in the capital was -12 C (around 10 F). The streets were covered with ice, and the city rumbled with the noise from generators.
Four days earlier, Russia also sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack and, for only the second time in the war, it used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in what appeared to be a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies that it won’t back down.
On Monday, the United States accused Russia of a “ dangerous and inexplicable escalation ” of the fighting, when the Trump administration is trying to advance peace negotiations.
Tammy Bruce, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Washington deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the conflict and condemns Russia’s intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.
Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water in the freezing winter months over the course of the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter.”
In Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the Russian attack also wounded 10 people, local authorities said.
In the southern city of Odesa, six people were wounded in the attack, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. The strikes damaged energy infrastructure, a hospital, a kindergarten, an educational facility and a number of residential buildings, he said.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is counting on quicker deliveries of agreed upon air defense systems from the U.S. and Europe, as well as new pledges of aid, to counter Russia’s latest onslaught.
Meanwhile, Russian air defenses shot down 11 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday. Seven were reportedly destroyed over Russia’s Rostov region, where Gov. Yuri Slyusar confirmed an attack on the coastal city of Taganrog, about 40 kilometers (about 24 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, in Kyiv's latest long-range attack on Russian war-related facilities.
Ukraine’s military said domestically-produced drones hit a drone manufacturing facility in Taganrog. The Atlant Aero plant carries out design, manufacturing and testing of Molniya drones and components for Orion unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Explosions and a fire were reported at the site, with damage to production buildings confirmed, the General Staff said.
It wasn't possible to independently verify the reports.
Katie Marie Davies contributed to this report from Manchester, England.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
