Is it true that the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces wears a bracelet with a swastika?

Internet users drew attention to the photo of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny on his Twitter account. On Zaluzhny’s hand, users saw a bracelet with Nazi symbols. We checked whether the head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine really wears such a bracelet.

Photo Valeria Zaluzhny, who so interested network users, appeared on his Twitter account on October 6. On the right hand you can see a bracelet with poorly visible symbols. Telegram channel «War on fakes” published an enlarged fragment of a bracelet on which a swastika is allegedly visible. The news was picked up by numerous Russian media: “RIA Novosti", "Russian newspaper", Life.ru, Lenta.ru, "Gazeta.ru" TV channel "Star“wrote that because of the scandal that broke out, Zaluzhny had to justify himself for openly wearing fascist symbols. The speaker of the Russian Foreign Ministry also commented on the news Maria Zakharova: “The result is that the Ukrainian commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces wears a bracelet with a swastika. And there’s no way to make excuses here.” The “swastika” on Zaluzhny’s bracelet also received wide attention on social networks: for example, this tweet more than 12 thousand reposts.

Telegram channel “War on Fake” was one of the first noticed photo published on Zaluzhny's Twitter. For greater clarity, the channel’s authors enlarged the fragment with the bracelet on Zaluzhny’s hand so that readers could see the “swastika” more clearly.

A few hours later, the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security published fast with a photo of a similar bracelet, but in good quality. This photo clearly shows that this is not a swastika, but two intertwined links. These bracelets are sold at website Ukrainian online store of accessories Pakabone. However, Maria Zakharova was not convinced by this explanation:

“Of course, as soon as the photograph was widely distributed, causing a resonance, followed ridiculous excuses the Kyiv regime, that it was simply Twitter that reduced the quality of the photo so much, which is why supposedly a swastika appeared on the bracelet. Maybe Bankova decided to take revenge on Elon Musk? In the comments, Zaluzhny himself confirmed this very version about the evil Twitter branding the Ukrainian military with swastikas. Oh, if only Twitter could do that. But the artificial intelligence of this social network is still branded as zero, raised to double value - “x0x0L” What is it really? The bracelet that lead as a starting point, Zaluzhny’s apologists are completely different from the one of a high-ranking Ukrainian neo-Nazi with a machine gun in his hand. Compare: original and ridiculous substitution. The result is that the Ukrainian commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces wears a bracelet with a swastika. And there’s no way to make excuses here.”

Bead for a dial bracelet, Pakabone really does not look like the “swastika” on Zaluzhny’s bracelet. However, it is difficult to compare the high-resolution close-up of the bead (on Pakabone's website) with the blurry image of Zaluzhny's bracelet (on his Twitter). Therefore, one of the officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Anatoly Stefan published photo a similar bracelet from Pakabone and its blurry version with reduced quality. With this processing, it is clear that the symbol depicted on the bead “Solomon's knot" takes on the shape of a swastika, which some Russian users saw.

We found the same bracelet of Zaluzhny in his other photographs on social networks (for example, here, here or here). All the beads on Zaluzhny’s bracelet match set Scandinavian symbols presented on the Pakabone website. And the company itself confirmedthat the bracelet of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is their work. Beads with the swastika symbol in assortment Pakabone no.

Thus, the “swastika” on Zaluzhny’s bracelet is actually Solomon’s Knot, which in poor resolution has changed its shape. This visual similarity was taken advantage of by the Russian pro-government Telegram channel “War on Fake”, which often publishes false statements. From there, this disinformation found its way into the Russian media and the accounts of Russian officials.

Cover image: Twitter

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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