In June 2024, reports circulated on the RuNet that the head of the German Foreign Ministry told reporters that Ukraine was able to “rehabilitate the swastika in the eyes of the free world.” We checked to see if this quote is real.
In a post published on June 17 by the Telegram channel “Kot Kostyan - official channel"(116,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), it is alleged that, answering questions from journalists about the admissibility of using swastikas in the Ukrainian army, German Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock said:
“If earlier this symbol was associated with the Nazi regime of one of the European countries, today it is worn by people who are fighting for their right to independence. We can say that Ukraine managed to rehabilitate the swastika in the eyes of the free world and turn it into a symbol of freedom, a symbol of the struggle for its existence. Today there is no reason for a negative attitude towards these symbols if their bearers are fighting Russian aggression.”
According to the TGStat service, at the time of writing this analysis, more than 270 posts with an alleged quote from Burbock were published on Telegram - in total they received about 1.9 million views. Channels of TV presenters wrote about the words of the German minister Oscar Kucera (26,000 views) and Yana Poplavskaya (40,000, post deleted), "The world of Mikhail Onufrienko"(244,000), "Alexander Semchenko"(207,000), "Dmitry Vasilets"(100,000, post deleted), "Club service"(66,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(66,000, post deleted), "Mriya"(60,000), etc. Similar publications are also found on VKontakte (examples here And here), "Zene" and on some news sites, including "Political analytics", "Krasnodar news feed"etc.
None of the publications found by Verified indicate where or when Burbock allegedly uttered the phrase that went viral. We did not find any mention of such a quote on the minister’s social networks (X, Instagram, Facebook), nor in German socio-political publications. At the same time, outside the RuNet, the supposed phrase Berbok still occurs. For example, on the social network X it was posted by an English-language pro-Kremlin account @peacemaket71 (529,000 views). That post also did not provide any additional information.
The earliest entry we found with this quote appeared in the Telegram channel “and here is my Yandex wallet" There, the post was published on June 17 at 11:44 Moscow time and received more than 27,000 views.
Apparently, the authors who subsequently disseminated the contents of this post about Burbock on their resources did not pay attention to the fact that the vast majority of publications “but my Yandex wallet” are satirical in nature. “Parody, satire on political reality. Only verified fakes,” reads description of the profile of this Telegram channel. However, this is not the first time that “Verified” has observed such a picture: on our website published more than 20 texts about how this blogger’s inventions were subsequently passed off as real news by other resources.
On June 18, the author of “but my Yandex wallet” released two more posts about the fake Berbock quote he invented. IN first he wrote that “the prank was a success” and attached screenshots of posts in the channels “Yana Poplavskaya”, “Kot Kostyan” and “Alexander Semchenko”. In second The post shows a screenshot of a tweet from @peacemaket71, and the caption reads: “Gone to the American Internet, now [Berbock] won’t get away.”
Note that the Telegram channel “Two majors” (191,000 views) also first published a fake quote from a German minister with the caption “Damn Nazis,” but then an update appeared in the same publication: “News from a humorous resource. Let’s wait until it becomes a fact in a couple of years.” Another pro-Kremlin channel "Fisherman” (329,000 views) added: “You know, whatever the source and no matter how unrealistic this situation may seem, the fact is that the grandfather of the German Foreign Minister is a Nazi. Such statements are not uncommon in their family, so there is some truth in every joke. And given what’s happening now, we wouldn’t be surprised if this joke comes true.” Claim about Berbock's grandfather's Nazi past "Verified" sorted it out in February 2024.
Thus, the German Foreign Minister did not claim that Ukraine managed to turn the swastika into a symbol of freedom. Initially, this quote by Burbock appeared in a satirical Telegram channel, from where later the authors of other resources copied it and distributed it without the appropriate marking.
Cover photo: @ABaerbock (X)
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