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Friday, Mar. 25, 2022

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wear a T-shirt with a Nazi iron cross on it while addressing Congress?

Sarah Thompson, Lead Stories
no

The shirt Volodymyr Zelenskyy wore when he addressed the U.S. Congress on March 16, 2022, had the symbol of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the left chest.

Social media posts calling attention to the cross shape of this symbol tried to associate it with the infamous Iron Cross of Nazism. The T-shirt graphic on Zelenskyy's shirt is a simplified version of the full-color emblem of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that was adopted by decree of the president of Ukraine on Sept. 3, 2009. In the center of the cross is the Ukrainian coat of arms, the trident or "tryzub."

An article on symbolsage.com describes the history of the cross that has arms that narrow toward the center, known as the cross pattée. Its history dates back as far as the Crusades, and is still used in religious, national, military and heraldic symbolism.

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