Several posts on X showing soldiers holding flags bearing a prominent swastika have been circulating this week. According to these posts, the soldiers are part of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces and are openly displaying their “Nazi” allegiances – with some even going so far as to imply that NATO is antisemitic and a “Nazi Organisation.”
While we have encountered many other cases of AI-generated images in claims about swastikas, the pictures of the soldiers do not appear to be digitally altered. However, several elements of the claim stood out to us as being potentially inaccurate.
For one, although NATO is a military alliance and does conduct collaborative exercises and deployments, it does not have independent forces or an army. Instead, forces from its 32 member countries contribute personnel, equipment and resources while using their own military uniforms and insignia. The “NATO soldiers” in the circulating images are actually Finnish troops. Finland joined NATO as a member in April 2023 and has been participating in and hosting NATO exercises since then. And, a closer look for the original images show that they were not actually taken at NATO events, but from local parades – with the most commonly used image from a parade in 2019.
Based on our research, we found that Finland’s Military has a long history with the swastika that predates its use by Nazi Germany (which adopted it in 1920).
There is no link between the Nazi ideology and the Finnish use of the swastika. Rather, the swastika has a long-recorded history that goes back thousands of years – used as a symbol of luck and good fortune across many different cultures and religions (such as Hinduism and Buddhism). In the early 20th century before it’s adoption by Adolf Hitler, it became hugely popular across Europe to use the swastika as good luck symbol.
The swastika was prominently used as part of the Finnish Defence Force and Finnish Air Force insignia between 1918 and 1945. After 1945, the Finnish Air Force changed its emblem from a swastika to a blue and white roundel but retained the symbol in the insignia of some of its units. Notably, the logo of its Air Force Command contained a swastika till it was changed in 2020.
Currently, the Finnish Air Force Academy as well as three Air Wings still fly flags that contain a swastika. The flags pictured in the claim posts are likely from one of these four units within the Finnish Air Force and make appearances during military parades and drills.
Recent news reports say that this will soon be changed to avoid “awkwardness” with foreign nations where the swastika is chiefly seen as a hate symbol. According to a statement from the Finnish Defense Forces to the Associated Press, plans to renew the flags have been underway for some time to “update the symbolism and emblems of the flags to better reflect the current identity of the Air Force.”
Therefore, while images circulating with the claim do show Finnish soldiers flying flags that contain swastikas, this has nothing to do with Nazi ideology – nor can they be accurately described as “NATO soldiers.” Instead, the flags represent various Finnish Air Force units, who have been using the swastika since 1918 – before it was used by the Nazi Party.
We give this claim a rating of false. Easily clarified facts have been twisted to portray the flags as Nazi affiliated in order to spread a certain narrative about NATO.
