Is it true that the monument to Bandera in Lviv was highlighted in the colors of the Israeli flag?

In October 2023, a photograph of the monument to the Ukrainian politician, allegedly decorated in solidarity with a Jewish state, became popular on the Internet. We checked whether this picture was true.

The media reports and Telegram channels argue that the monument to the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement Stepan Bandera in Lviv soon after the Hamas attack on Israel was highlighted in the colors of the state flag of this country. A picture of the monument is given as evidence. Internet users drew attention to the ambiguity of the situation, because members of the organization of Ukrainian nationalists (OUN), whose leader was Bandera, are accused of involvement in Jewish pogroms during the Second World War.

The news was distributed, in particular, the television channel "Tsargrad","ZOV Lviv" And "Politicus", As well as many Telegram channels, for example Colonelcassad (290,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Gasparyan"(83,000),"Gossip"(77 000),"Evil journalist"(59,000).

After attacks Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023 around the world was held by shares of solidarity with the people of this country. So, in the colors of the Israeli flag with the help of the backlight "painted" Brandenburg gates In Berlin, Eiffel Tower In Paris, White House In Washington, a television tower in Tbilisi and objects c others capitals. In Rome, the illumination was placed on the Titus arch, built about 2000 years ago as a sign of conquest of the Judea of ​​the Roman Empire. This caused the bewilderment of some Internet users who did not went around side Russian propaganda, but a calm reaction of many Jewish And PROVREYSKY Organizations say that the symbolism laid down in this decision of the Italian authorities was correctly understood by them.

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine is also condemned The attack of the Palestinian militants and expressed the support of Israel in the right to defend himself and his people. In the evening of the same day, President Vladimir Zelensky posted on the social network X (formerly Twitter) Appeal With a sharp criticism of Hamas terrorist attack and a call to the world community to react properly. October 8 in Kyiv on more than 300 digital billboards appeared The image of the flag of Israel, however, there was no known about any illumination of monuments and other structures in the capital and other cities of Ukraine at the time of writing. At least, no authoritative Ukrainian source reported this.

Monument to the leader of Ukrainian nationalists Stepan Bandera in Lviv appeared In 2007, during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko. Due to the contradictory attitude to the personality of Bandera, the monument from time to time He became the object of vandalism. One of these shares was held on the night of February 5, 2021, when two men doused the monument with red paint - like it turned out Later, by order of one native of Western Ukraine. Monument Washed A few hours after the incident, but the photographs managed to disperse the media and social networks.

And if you look at the picture in February 2021 Placed On Facebook, the mayor of Lviv Andrei Sadovaya, you can see that it almost completely coincides with the photo “In the colors of the Israeli flag” who was dispersed in October 2023: angle, traces of paint and even glare of light on the podium are identical.

It is impossible to get two identical photographs in such a location, and even with a difference of two and a half years, especially since the paint was removed from the monument on the day of the incident. The only difference is the same “backlight”. However, if you look closely, its contours do not coincide with the silhouette of the monument and columns in the background.

The "star of David" is not at all like a form to the symbol of Israel.

In other words, the picture spread over the network is the result of a rather rough processing of the original photo of 2021 in the graphic editor. 

The spread of a painted picture began on October 12, 2023 at 19:26 Moscow time from the account @arctryx74 In the social network X (therefore, in many publications you can see a fragment of his post). The owner of the blog, judging by the information in the section "About himself", lives in Moscow, earlier he published numerous tweets of anti -Ukrainian content, and in the photo profile is depicted in a T -shirt with the letter Z - one of symbols Russian invasion. When in the comments @Arcteryx74 they asked if the fake picture of the monument to Bandera, he confessed:

Thus, the news about the illumination of the Bandera monument in Lviv turned out to be fiction, and the photograph used as evidence is the result of digital processing of the picture taken back in February 2021.

Photo on the cover: social networks

Fake

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