Original article (in Serbian) was published on 21/04/2022
To portray Ukraine as a pro-Nazi state and justify Russia’s attack, photos are shared on social networks that allegedly “prove” Nazism. The last in a series is a photograph of people forming the number 55, which is interpreted as depicting a swastika in Ukraine that “marks the day of Hitler’s birth”. The photo, however, originates from Russia. It is several years old and features people lined up forming a number 55 to mark the 55th anniversary of man’s first flight into space.
“This is how children in Ukraine – Lviv today marked Hitler’s birthday!!! Nazis” – this was shared on Twitter along with a photo showing people holding balloons and gathered in the shape of the number 55. The arrangement of people in the photo implies that they formed a swastika, which is known as a symbol of Nazism, and that in this way, young people in Ukraine marked Hitler’s birthday.
After some tweeters determined in the comments that the context of the photo was different, the tweet was deleted.
Apart from the fact that it was not created in Ukraine, but for the sake of paradox – in Russia, the photograph has nothing to do with Hitler and Nazism.
During the search, we found that the photo was taken on April 12, 2016, in the Russian city of Penza, to mark the 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight to space. In 2011, the UN General Assembly declared April 12 as the International Day of Human Space Flight, and this day is marked in Russia as the Cosmonaut Day.
A video of this ceremony, which shows people gathered in the shape of the number 55, can be found on the YouTube channel of Russia 1 television, whose description in Russian states that “on Cosmonaut Day, participants in the Penza flash mob gathered in the shape of the number 55”.
This can be determined by comparing photos from a tweet and shots from a video.
Thus, it can be seen that the arrangement of the mosaic and the color of the concrete are the same in the photo and the video. In both cases, a red and yellow object can be seen behind the participants, as well as a man in a gray suit. Also, both the picture and the video show the same trees, the building behind the participants, and the billboard.
Many Russophiles justify the conflict in Ukraine as the goal of the Russians to clean Ukraine from the Nazis, so photos often appear on social networks with such intent. At the beginning of March, for example, a photo of Ukrainian President Zelensky holding a football jersey with a swastika was shared. However, that was a photo montage because President Zelensky was actually holding a jersey featuring the number 95, which FakeNews Tragac previously wrote about.