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Ukrainian soldiers practice satanic rituals invoking dark forces to help them in battle, according to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti. The story aims to demonize the opponent, the Ukrainian army.
NEWS: “Signs of black magic were found at the headquarters of the Ukrainian artillery command near the town of Trehizbenka: followers of the evil spirits tried to “sanctify” their weapons and left traces of blood, the RIA Novosti correspondent reports.
The A4472 military unit was located in that headquarters. The satanic seal was noticed on the walls, just like in the Hollywood movies about dark forces.
“It's a magical symbol, made up of several intersecting lines. It is difficult to say what it symbolizes, here you can see the inverted anarchic symbol, part of the SS symbol, rune-Sieg, clearly visible on the left side of the circle, and the Hebrew letter Zein, written in German, meaning “sword” or “weapon”, said the culturologist Ecaterina Dais for RIA Novosti. It is the “magic seal of the forces of darkness”, she added.
She noticed that the symbol consisted of an unbroken line, which also demonstrates its occult character. In Biblical Hebrew, Zein means “sword”, and the verb “lezein” means “to arm”. They probably performed a ritual to strengthen their weapons or “requested” more weapons”, Dais said.
The instructions found at the headquarters included a communiqué of the Ukrainian fighters in which they reported the losses suffered in Donbass. Traces of blood were found on the document, which has not been observed in other cases”.
NARRATIVE: Ukrainian Nazi soldiers practice satanic rituals to help them in battle.
PURPOSE: The narrative aims to demonize the opponent
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: One of the main narratives promoted by the Kremlin to justify the invasion of Ukraine is that the country must be denazified; in fact, since the first attack on Ukraine in 2014, Russia has denounced the presence of so-called fascist elements in the neighboring country. This narrative is also supported by false news about mysticism and occult rituals, which are allegedly practiced by the Ukrainian military, with reference to the interest in occultism of some Nazi leaders, especially from the SS.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda has used various stories, especially about the Ukrainian military in the Azov battalion. The Russian press writes that the Ukrainian military fighting in Mariupol would worship the statue of the lightning god Perun, but also other Scandinavian deities (under the influence of far-right Europeans), that they practice various rituals, from the witches’ Sabbath to traditions followed by soldiers from the US special forces. Russian TV stations have also reported that a group of American soldiers known as Satans’ mercenaries are also fighting in Ukraine. At the beginning of the widespread invasion in 2022, videos appeared on social media - later debunked as fakes - in which characters dressed in military uniforms and posing as fighters of the Azov battalion appear to be crucifying a young man. The best-known fake news of this kind was the one about the crucifixion of a child, released in 2014, when Russia started the war in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Allegations about the connection between the Ukrainian forces, the far right and occultism have been made recently - and widely taken over by Russian channels - also by Lara Logan, a journalist and war correspondent associated in recent years with the promotion of conspiracy theories and misinformation, because of which she has been fired by several media organizations, including Fox News, which does not always distance itself from such theories.
Fake news about Satanism also indirectly refers to the way Russia positions itself as a besieged Orthodox Christian city, a defender of traditional values as opposed to those that the Church denounces as sins.
The story about the satanic rituals therefore bears many resemblances to other fake news spread in the last 8 years of Russian propaganda and, following the same pattern, brings no conclusive evidence. Moreover, no independent sources have found any satanic trend among the Ukrainian forces, either after or before the outbreak of the widespread Russian invasion.
