The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine reports that from the first days of russian invasion of Ukraine, images of russian military machinery with the Latin letters Z and V began to appear in social media. Then various analysts started to introduce their ideas of what this could mean.
It has been speculated that this means the territorial affiliation of the troops – letter Z on military machinery stands for the Western Military District, and V – for the Eastern Military District.
Some insisted that V and Z are the references to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
There was also another version that the machinery was marked specifically for the military trainings. However, this one is considered unlikely, because the training was held only in Belarus, and the machinery was painted everywhere along the entire border with Ukraine.
Furthermore, usually during the trainings the machinery is not repainted but simply distributed red and blue flags and ribbons for marking “us- blue” and “them-red”.
Most likely, such a marking was developed during the preparations for the invasion of Ukraine, so that during hostilities it would be clear to which command group the combat machinery belongs.
The belief that the marking of machinery with Latin letters was initially a pure military staff decision is evidenced by the fact that only a week after the start of the war, kremlin propagandists decided to adopt the symbols Z and V. It was then that a rather implausible explanation was invented that, as if , Z – means “For the victory” and V- means “power in truth”.
It is interesting that currently russian soldiers in Ukraine abandoned the former meaning of these markings and draw Z on all their machinery that arrives from the reserve, even if it did not have any symbols on it before.
Since then, kremlin PRs began to create a “brand” of Z and V by analogy with the St. George ribbon, “green men” and “polite people” in Crimea.
The main purpose of such an informational attack on the consciousness of the average russian is clear. In the conditions of the failed invasion and the unpredictable voluminous reaction of the West as well as the growing level of social rejection of the motives of aggression against Ukraine, russian authorities are forced to look for the way out.
One of such solutions, according to kremlin strategists, should be to provide letters Z and V with a “deep” meaning – symbols of the unity and cohesion of russian people in support of the Armed Forces and most importantly – the decisions of president putin.
They have even come up with a justification why exactly Latin symbols were used for the markings – they say, due to the fact that they should be understandable to both russian citizens as well as foreigners.
What it has ultimately led to, we will discuss in the next part….
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