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

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

Media reports and Telegram channels claim that the monument to the leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement Stepan Bandera in Lviv, shortly after the Hamas attack on Israel, was illuminated in the colors of the national flag of this country. A photograph of the monument is provided 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 disseminated, in particular, by the TV channelConstantinople", "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), "Angry journalist"(59,000).

After attacks Hamas against Israel On October 7, 2023, actions of solidarity with the people of this country took place all over the world. So, the colors of the Israeli flag were “painted” with the help of lighting. Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Eiffel Tower in Paris, White House in Washington, TV tower in Tbilisi and objects in others capitals. In Rome, the illumination was placed on the Arch of Titus, built about 2000 years ago as a sign of the conquest of Judea by the Roman Empire. This caused confusion among some Internet users, who did not bypassed Russian propaganda is on the side, but the calm reaction of many Jewish And pro-Jewish organizations suggests that the symbolism inherent in this decision of the Italian authorities was understood correctly by them.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine also condemned attack by Palestinian militants and expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself and its people. On the evening of the same day, President Vladimir Zelensky posted on the social network X (formerly Twitter) appeal with sharp criticism of the Hamas terrorist attack and a call on the international community to respond appropriately. October 8 in Kyiv on more than 300 digital billboards appeared an image of the flag of Israel, but at the time of writing the analysis there was no information about any illumination of monuments and other structures in the capital and other cities of Ukraine. At least, not a single 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 controversial attitude towards the personality of Bandera, the monument is from time to time was becoming subject to vandalism. One of these actions took place on the night of February 5, 2021, when two men poured red paint on the monument - as it turned out later, by order of a native of Western Ukraine. Monument washed just a few hours after the incident, but the photographs managed to spread across the media and social networks.

And if you look at the picture, which in February 2021 posted On Facebook, the mayor of Lvov, Andrey Sadovoy, you can see that it almost completely coincides with the photo “in the colors of the Israeli flag” that went viral in October 2023: the angle, traces of paint and even the glare of light on the pedestal are identical.

It is practically impossible to obtain 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 at all coincide with the silhouette of the monument and columns in the background.

The Star of David is not at all similar in shape to the symbol of Israel.

In other words, the image that has spread across the Internet is the result of a rather rough processing of the original 2021 photo in a graphics editor. 

The distribution of the colorized photograph began on October 12, 2023 at 19:26 Moscow time from the account @arcteryx74 on social network X (that’s why you can see a fragment of his post in many publications). The owner of the blog, judging by the information in the “About Me” section, lives in Moscow, he previously published numerous tweets with anti-Ukrainian content, and in his profile photo he is shown wearing a T-shirt with the letter Z - one of characters Russian invasion. When @arcteryx74 was asked in the comments whether the photo of the Bandera monument was a fake, he confessed:

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

Cover photo: social networks

Fake

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