Is it true that SS runes were painted on the Ukrainian flag donated by Zelensky to the US Congress?

On social networks you can find many publications with a photograph of the flag that the President of Ukraine brought to Washington from the besieged Bakhmut. In this photograph, symbols similar to SS symbols are circled. We decided to check if this is true.

Records of SS runes on the Ukrainian flag began to appear on December 22, the day after Vladimir Zelensky’s speech before the US Congress. Most common The caption for the photo reads: “Scandal in the USA: it turned out that Zelensky gave Vice President Harris and Speaker Pelosi a flag with SS runes. And, most importantly, during Hanukkah.” The story with the flag was noticed by many bloggers known for their anti-Ukrainian position: Andrey Bocharov (Bocharik), Mikhail Khazin, channels "Russian Donbass" And "Great Russia" The story spread across other social networks: Twitter, Facebook And LiveJournal.

Vladimir Zelensky spoke before the US Congress on December 21. His speech was broadcast many TV channels live. At the very end of his speech, Zelensky unfurled the Ukrainian flag and passed on him to the podium of US Vice President Kamala Harris and then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.

The recording shows that Harris and Pelosi are holding the flag with the inscriptions facing them, that is, the wrong side is facing the hall and television cameras. The inscriptions on the flag were left by the defenders of the city of Bakhmut (Donetsk region), with whom Zelensky met just before going to Washington.

The first publications on Telegram about SS runes began to spread on the afternoon of December 22. One of the first entries was posted on the Telegram channel “Front-line soldier» at 15:29. It shows a real photograph from Congress.

In later posts, starting with the entry in the Telegram channel “Militarist"(December 23, 12:55), another, mirrored version of the photograph is presented. Now the inscriptions on the flag are facing the viewer.

The author of this post, and other bloggers behind him, claim that the symbols marked with red arrows are nothing more than SS “lightning bolts”, or Nazi “Sig” runes.

The original image is a photograph taken at this AFP meeting. The agency's fact-checking service conducted your investigation and established a chain of manipulations, after which the inscription became similar to SS runes. This is what the original photo looks like:

Here is the fragment that Russian bloggers wrote about. AFP fact checkers mirrored it, but from the original image:

Thus, in both “blogger” photographs, the number 4 is duplicated, that is, added to the original photograph.

46 DShV is the abbreviated name 46th separate airmobile brigade Airborne assault troops of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It was this brigade that handed over the flag to Zelensky in Bakhmut. And then, after Zelensky’s speech in Congress, the brigade reportedthat their flag was presented to American legislators.

This post on Facebook notes that next to the abbreviation of 46 DShV there is also an autograph of one of the brigade commanders with the call sign Boomer - and this is also visible in the enlarged fragment of the photograph. The motto of the Ukrainian paratroopers “Zavzhdi pershi” (“Always first”) is also written on the flag.

Thus, the SS runes were formed on the flag of Ukraine as a result of working with a photo editor. The authors of the fake added one more number to make the numbers vaguely resemble Nazi “lightning bolts.” In fact, this is the inscription “46 DShV”.

Cover photo: social networks

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. AFP: Non, le drapeau offert par Zelensky au Congrès américain ne porte pas l'emblème des SS.
2. Photofake: Zelensky handed over the Ukrainian flag “with SS runes” to the US Congress.