Does the Bracelet of Valerii Zaluzhnyi Feature a Swastika?

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On October 9th, 2022, Kremlin media started actively disseminating the information that Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, wears a Nazi bracelet. Selected articles also featured a photo of Zaluzhnyi with a bracelet, asserting that it consists of several rings, depicting various ornaments and patterns, including the Nazi symbol – Swastika.

The information was circulated among the following Russian outlets:  RT, Красная Весна, lenta.ru, life.ru, Российская газета, gazeta.ru, ЦАРЬГРАД, Общественная служба новостей.

On October 12th, Georgian and Russian-speaking Facebook users also published a photo of Zaluzhnyi, claiming that he was wearing a bracelet with a swastika.

The disseminated claim contains elements of photo manipulation. In fact, the bracelet does not feature a swastika but a Scandinavian symbol. The photo is authentic; however, the low resolution of the image may mislead Internet users.

On October 6th, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, posted a photo of himself on Twitter wearing a bracelet.

Later on, an officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Anatoly Stefan (Stirlitz), published a photo of the bracelet of Zaluzhnyi to show which symbols it featured.

The photo shows that the symbol is not a swastika but a Scandinavian (similar to a Celtic knot) sign.

Source: Anatoly Stefan’s Twitter

Notably, if we zoom in on Valerii Zaluzhnyi’s original Twitter post to see a close-up of the bracelet, the image will become blurry, and the actual image of the symbols will be lost. Through Anatoly Stefan’s post, one can see how the symbols on the bracelet change after zooming in.

Source: Anatoly Stefan

The disinformation disseminated in the Russian media has been addressed by the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communications and Informational Security, which published a high-resolution image of the bracelet, allowing the readers to see the difference between the symbols.

As for the bracelet itself, one can find a similar bracelet on the Pakabone website, which offers Slavic, Scandinavian and tribal accessories. The symbol on Zaluzhnyi’s bracelet, which was manipulated and linked to the swastika, is also available on the store’s website. The symbol can be purchased separately from the bracelet.

The photo was also fact-checked by France 24 on October 12th.


Nini Shaorshadze

Myth Detector Intern


The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.

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Topic: Politics
Country: Russia, Ukraine
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