Volodymyr Zelensky signs the flag of the Ukrainian military unit that killed Poles in World War II – a recording of such a message is circulating on social networks. This is false information against Ukraine. We explain what moment this film actually represents.
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“On the recording, the President of the Republic of Ukraine signs the flag of the SS-Galizien. The SS-Galizien operates completely legally in Ukraine. The worship of the killers of Poles and Nazi propaganda continues in Ukraine,” warns the author of the message published on November 20 on the X platform on the profile of KORWiN is this party, whose president is Janusz Korwin-Mikke “Bandera Ukraine does not help anymore” – we also read in this comment a short video message.
In the video, we see the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, and a man in military uniform, who gives him a flag and the President signs it. According to subtitles on the screen, the man told Zelensky: “We will give you our flag.” After a while, a screenshot from Wikipedia appears on the screen, showing the code and information about the 14th Waffen SS Grenadier Division (commonly called SS Galizien). It is a military organization whose members brutally killed Poles and Jews in eastern Poland during World War II. It was founded in 1943 in Lviv by the Third Reich and consisted of Ukrainian volunteers. The screenshot included in the recording indicates that the flag with Zelensky's signature belongs to this division – this is what the account of the KORWiN party says.
The KORWiN Party's post with a false description of the recording has been viewed more than 107,000 times. timesx.com
Internet users, who believed in the correctness of the description of the video, commented: “The day will come when Russia will finally solve all this”; “Uj can't even see what he's signing. Watch the whole video. If he was given a sentence, he'd sign it too” “Well, I sympathize with deranged murderers. He's allowed to. Such a taste” (original spelling of all posts) .
But there were many commentators who denied the authenticity of the message. “But this is not a logo”; “absurd and fake news, this is the flag of the 103rd Independent Territorial Defense Brigade from Lviv” “SS Galizien had crowns on the coat of arms, but nothing on the flag. The lion is the coat of arms of the Khalich-Vladimir principality, they noted.
So let's explain where this record comes from.
Video of Zelensky's visit to Kharkiv region
As a large group of commenters correctly pointed out, the flag visible in the video is not the SS Galizien flag at all. The incident, a fragment of which was published on the Internet and is now being used to create fake news, took place in October 2023 during the visit of Volodymyr Zelensky to Kharkiv region. The report of this trip with photos is available on the website of the President of Ukraine. During his official visit to the Kharkiv region, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky visited the 103rd Independent Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 68th Jaeger Independent Brigade and the 25th Sicheslav Independent Landing Brigade, which are participating in military operations. regions of Kupyansk and Liman” – we read the 3rd in the material. In the film, you can see the flag and representatives of the first formation.
“Since the beginning of the full Russian offensive, the 103rd brigade of the Independent Territorial Defense Forces has been performing combat tasks, especially as part of the Lyman operational-tactical group, and since June 2022, the units of the brigade have been fighting for it. the freedom of Ukraine as a member of the Chortichya operational and strategic forces group'', the material informs.
The report on Zelensky's visit to Kharkiv region can be read on the president.gov.ua website.
Lions are similar but not the same
The 103rd Independent Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is associated with the Lviv Region. This is what he says about himself on the website: “We are a community of active citizens of the Lviv region who do not run away in case of aggression, but stand as one to defend their homes, families and states.” The lion on the flag of the brigade is similar to the symbol of the SS Galizien – so the claims of Internet users, on the symbols of the SS Galizien, the lion is different and there are three crowns around it. , accessed by the KORWiN Party is so vague that this detail is not visible.
The difference in the insignia of the brigade of the Lviv region and the division of SS Galizien is very big.
Using a reverse image search, we found material published by Ukrinform, Ukraine's state news agency. The first is an article published on the website on October 3, 2023, with information about the aforementioned visit of the President of Ukraine. One of the photos shows the moment of signing the flag. The second item is a video published on the YouTube channel “Ukrinform” (and also attached to the article mentioned above), a fragment of which was used to create fake news about Zelensky.
The full version of the recording lasts about two minutes – both the symbol and the flag of the 103rd Independent Territorial Defense Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine appear in it several times (for example, in the 11th second on the wall behind the recorded soldiers). There you can clearly see that there is no star on the flag that is in the symbol of SS Galizien.
The entire recording also appeared on October 3, 2023 on Vladimir Zelensky's Telegram profile. “Today we will visit our brigades, which are carrying out combat missions in one of the hottest areas – Kupyansk-Liman. The 103rd Independent Territorial Defense Brigade, the 68th Independent Hunter Brigade of Alexei Dobbus, the 25th Independent Airborne Brigade. We We talked with the commanders of the Sykheslav brigade about the current operational situation on the battlefield, problems and needs. writes Zelensky (editor's translation).
Anti-Ukraine fake news is coming back and going to the Polish network
The anti-Ukrainian message based on the recording of the flag signature is not new – and now it is being spread by the KORWiN party on the Polish network. This video with a false description has been circulating since the fall of 2023. It was published in the foreign account of the website, which is respected in today's Ukraine” (editor's translation). More than 26,000 have been generated since the entry. view The video also appeared on a French account in October 2023, a few days after Zelensky visited Kharkiv Oblast.
The falsely described film was used in anti-Ukraine narratives as early as 2023x.com.
On May 14, 2024, this post appeared again on the English profile mentioned above. “Killers of children, killers of children, monsters” – explained this time the author of this news (translated by the editor). This time the recording has been viewed more than 375,000 times. times; They were retweeted more than 1.7 thousand times. times
Main image source: x.com
