Did the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces publish a photo of himself wearing a bracelet with a swastika on it? That’s what some Russian media outlets and pro-Russian social media accounts have been reporting since October 9, 2022. While the photo is authentic, the compression of the image and the poor resolution quality make it possible to mistake the symbol on his bracelet for the Nazi cross. In reality, however, it is a Celtic knot. If you only have a minute Since October 9, 2022, certain Twitter and Facebook accounts have been sharing a photo of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Fedorovych Zaluzhnyi, which they claim shows him wearing a bracelet adorned with a swastika. However, the bracelet looks just like one sold by the popular Ukrainian company Pakabone. The symbol on the bracelet is actually a Celtic knot. However, the poor resolution of the image makes it possible to mistake the symbol for a swastika. So that means that this is a simple optical illusion exploited by pro-Russian accounts to connect Ukraine and Nazi ideology. The verification, in detail The photo, which at first glance seems banal, shows General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, wearing camouflage and carrying a weapon. However, since October 9, 2022, Russian media and pro-Russian social media accounts have been using this image to feed into Russia’s argument that the Ukrainian government is full of a bunch of neo-Nazis. These accounts claim that there is a swastika on the bracelet the commander is wearing. Russian news outlet Russia Today published an article about the bracelet on October 9, 2022. It was also picked up by certain pro-Russian accounts on Twitter (check out, for example, this post shared more than 12,000 times) and on Facebook. These posts feature the original photo as well as a zoomed-in image showing what looks like the Nazi symbol. “This is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Ukraine wearing a bracelet with a swastika. But NATO insists there are no Nazis in Ukraine,” reads this tweet in English that was retweeted 3,000 times. In France, the image was picked up and shared by the former presidential candidate François Asselineau, known for his pro-Russian positions. His tweet, published on October 10, was shared more than 1,900 times. Lawyer Juan Branco also shared this information in a post that garnered more than 1,800 retweets.
via france24: No, this Ukrainian general isn’t wearing a bracelet with a swastika on it