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No, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, does not wear a bracelet with a swastika

No, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, does not wear a bracelet with a swastika

On 9 October, Raheem Kassam, former adviser to Nigel Farage, one of the co-authors of Brexit, posted on his Twitter profile a photo of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, with a close-up of his bracelet. In the enlarged photo, he marked one of the symbols on the bracelet and added the following caption:

NOTHING TO SEE HERE just Ukraine’s head of the Armed Forces wearing a diamond swastika bracelet.

His post was shared several thousand times, gaining almost 30,000 likes. The alleged swastika, however, turned out to be a graphic artifact created as a result of the enlargement of the photo, while the actual symbol depicts a Celtic knot.

Raheem Kassam about Valerii Zaluzhnyi
Source: Twitter/Raheem J. Kassam
Claim:
Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, wears a bracelet with a swastika.
Our rating:

A Celtic symbol

The photograph of General Zaluzhnyi in the false context was shared on Twitter and Facebook i.a. by Piotr Panasiuk, known for spreading anti-vaccine propaganda. The manipulation of image quality was explained by Twitter user @osmnactej. In his post, he presented a photograph of the bracelet in good quality with the Celtic Eternity Knot marked. Below, for comparison, he posted a version with deteriorated quality of the photo. As a result of compressing the graphics, a pattern resembling a swastika was created. This is a so-called artifact, that is, a side effect of compression used in order to reduce image size or change the format.

osmnactej about Valerii Zaluzhnyi
Source: Twitter/osmnactej

Celtic symbols, known in Nordic culture, are used not only in jewellery.

Celtic symbols
Source: etsy.com

The very same symbol is used by Niichimmash, a Russian company seated in Moscow.

Niichimmash in Moscow
Source: echemistry.ru

Summary

Very often, Russian propaganda tries to use image or photo manipulations in order to depict Ukrainians as Nazis, or to insinuate that President Zelenskyy is addicted to drugs. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who commands the army during the ongoing war against Russia, is a national hero in Ukraine. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that he is targeted by the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.

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Absolwent Telekomunikacji i Elektroniki na Politechnice Wrocławskiej. Ekspert w zakresie technologii 5G. Z serwisem związany jest od 2020 roku. Specjalizuje się w weryfikacji informacji dotyczących polityki, spraw społecznych, klimatu i technologii. Umiejętności OSINTowe doskonalił na kursach prowadzonych przez m.in. organizacje Sekkura i Bellingcat. Posiada certyfikat DISARM. Email: pcymbor(at)fakenews.pl