The German Embassy in Moscow has apologized after sharing a map that altered the Soviet flag into a symbol resembling that of the Nazis. The embassy acknowledged the error and removed the image following criticism from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Berlin’s diplomatic mission published a post on its Telegram channel on Tuesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the division of German territory after World War II. Germany was fully occupied and governed by the Allied powers from the Berlin Declaration on June 5, 1945, until the founding of West Germany on May 23, 1949. The accompanying map of the Allied occupation zones depicted the Soviet flag as a hammer and sickle in a white circle on a red background. The flags of France, the United States, and the UK appeared correctly on the map.
The altered Soviet design resembled the Nazi German flag under Adolf Hitler, which had a black swastika in a white circle against a red backdrop. In contrast, the official flag of the Soviet Union displayed a gold hammer and sickle on a red field, positioned in the upper corner.
In a statement, the embassy explained that the image was intended to illustrate post-war European borders, but had featured “a map from that time with incorrect data.” “We did not intend to offend the feelings of our subscribers and replaced the image after learning about the mistake,” it added.
The updated photo showed the museum in Berlin’s Karlshorst district, where the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the German Armed Forces was signed.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova urged the German Embassy to apologize for the post. She described the incident as either “the stupidity of the employees” or “a deliberate – and under Russian law, illegal – attempt” to equate the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany.
She also raised the possibility that the embassy’s social media content is being managed by external parties, stating, “They have stopped working at the German Embassy for a long time, but simply pay for outsourcing to Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine or exchange such fakes by barter for missiles.”
Since taking office earlier this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has urged greater military aid to Ukraine and has backed the use by Kiev of long-range missiles “without restrictions,” including strikes inside Russian territory.
In May, Germany pledged €5 billion ($5.6 billion) to support the production of long-range weapons in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov condemned the move, saying Germany was “competing with France for primacy in further provoking war.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Germany was “sliding down the same slippery slope it already followed a couple of times in the last century – down toward its own collapse.”
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