Kremlin-controlled anonymous telegram channels have circulated a number of photos of Christmas tree decorations with swastikas and other Nazi symbols claiming they were in Ukraine. In reality, this is not true.

On Flickr, a photo and video sharing and archiving website, swastika Christmas decorations were published in 2011. They were later distributed by Slate.fr. Also, these toys are mentioned in a scientific article in Polish about the celebration of Christmas during the Second World War.

These photos were taken at the Bread and Art Museum (until 2018 Bread Culture Museum) in Ulm. In 2013, German art historians exhibited a collection of 400 Christmas tree decorations from the Third Reich to demonstrate how fanatics changed the symbols of Christmas.

Among the old photographs with Nazi symbols, the propagandists published one fresh photograph, which has Christmas decorations with the inscriptions “Glory to the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, “Azov”, “Right Sector”. The propagandists stole this photo from the site olx.ua, which sells New Year’s patriotic toys.

Russian propaganda regularly disseminates “evidence” of Ukraine’s alleged adherence to Nazi ideology in order to justify the need for its fictional “denazification” of Ukraine.