At the beginning of August 2023, a photo allegedly of a new Ukrainian icon with the Mother of God and Child in helmets circulated on Telegram and social networks. We checked where the image came from and whether it became an object of cult for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

A photograph of an icon depicting the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus raising his hand in a Nazi salute, wearing helmets and surrounded by Cossacks, as well as with the inscription “Mati Bozha, save our race” (“Mother of God, save our race”) became viral in the Russian-language segment of Telegram. On August 8, a photo with captions like “The “Ukrainian” race has acquired its own deity” and “An icon of the Virgin Mary in a fascist helmet and with a yawning baby?” distributed Telegram channels "Russia now"(335,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Uncle Slava» (214,000), Voblya (160,000), TG Team Russia (65,000), "Constantinople» (29,000), etc. A day earlier, on August 7, with the caption “Schismatics of the OCU mock the images of saints” image appeared in the channel of TV presenter Ruslan Ostashko (122,000) and with such a comment it became popular in "VKontakte», "Zene» And "Odnoklassniki».

Screenshot of a post in the TG Team Russia channel

Contrary to the claims of the authors of popular channels, this photo is by no means new. Previously, with similar comments, a photo of the alleged icon was published by Russian-language accounts on VKontakte (2022, 2013 years), Twitter (2019, 2017 years), on forums (2018, 2014 years) and in LiveJournal (2017, 2007 years), by her also illustrated reprints of an article by Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church Vladislav Tsypin about “Ukrainian Satanism” (Tsypin himself did not write specifically about this icon).

By using reverse image search “Checked” was able to find the file in the highest resolution. He was posted in 2006 in the blog “Ukrainian Nationalist” in “Live Journal” with the caption “Icon of my friend” (“Icon of my friend”). Surviving metadata indicates that the photo was taken on October 15, 2004.

That is, the painting itself was painted no later than this date, and the Ukrainian Nationalist blog was probably the first to publish its photo. For almost 19 years, this image has not become any popular on Ukrainian social networks and blogs. “Verified” found less than a dozen posts by Ukrainian-speaking users on social networks and blog platforms with a photo of the icon. All of them were written by people with far-right views, and none of them went viral. So, for example, in 2013, the icon from the photograph was redrawn Lviv artist and put up for sale - the post received only two likes. The image is much more popular in the Russian media field; it began to appear regularly on Russian-language blogs and social networks since 2017 years, although earlier publications have also survived.

This icon has no connections with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and is not an icon in the canonical sense. Details about what can be called an icon, “Verified” wrote, examining the story of the “satanic” painting presented by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to Pope Francis in May 2023. The OCU blesses Bogomazov to paint modern icons on unusual materials and even sanctifies some of them, but this information is always open and accessible, and the icons themselves are compositionally maintained in strict accordance with the canon. The image of the Mother of God and the Child in helmets surrounded by Cossacks, in principle, could not be consecrated according to the Orthodox canon of icon painting.

Thus, this supposed icon does exist, but was painted by an unknown far-right author at least 19 years ago. The painting cannot be called a canonical icon; it has no relation to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, is not used for services and, judging by the available data, is better known outside the country. Messages linking this icon with the OCU, and even more so talking about it as some kind of novelty that caused a stir among believers, do not correspond to reality.

Cover photo: collage “Checked”