THE NEW YORK TIMES, KIEV Since Russia began his invasion Ukrainelast year, the Ukrainian government and allies of Nato They posted and later discreetly deleted on their social media three photos that could have appeared innocuous: a combatant amidst a group of soldiers, a soldier resting in a trench, and a person working as a rescuer and in front of you truck poses .
In every photo, uniformed Ukrainians sported insignia featuring symbols made famous by Nazi Germany and which have since become iconography for farright hate groups.
The photos and the fact that they were deleted underscore the complicated relationship between the Ukrainian army and Nazi imagery, a relationship that arose during Soviet and German occupation during World War II. This relationship becomes particularly delicate because the Russian President, Wladimir Putin, He falsely declared Ukraine a Nazi state, a claim he used to justify his illegal invasion.
Ukrainian soldier wears a patch with the skull and crossbones symbol, an example of Nazi iconography, which was posted on the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Twitter account and later deleted. Photo: Vlad Novak/Twitter of the Government of Ukraine
Ukraine has worked for years to curb a farright movement through legislation and conscription restructuring, whose members proudly wear Nazihistory symbols on their uniforms and take hostile stances on LGBT+ movements and ethnic minorities. However, some members of these groups have been fighting Russia since the Kremlin’s illegal annexation of part of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and are now part of the broader military structure. Some are considered national heroes, although the extreme right remains politically marginalized.
The iconography of these groups — which includes the skull and crossbones insignia of Nazi concentration camp guards and a symbol known as the “Black Sun” — now appears more frequently on the uniforms of soldiers fighting on the front lines, including military personnel who claim the images symbolize the sovereignty and pride of Ukraine, not Nazism.
A skull and crossbones pendant worn by SS soldiers and displayed at the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum: The symbol was worn by the Nazi unit that committed war crimes and guarded concentration camps during World War II. Photo: Tamara Leigh via The New York Times
In the short term, this threatens to amplify Putin’s propaganda by fueling his false claims that Ukraine must be “denazified.”; a position that ignores the fact that the Ukrainian President Volodmir Zelenskyy, be Jewish. More broadly, Kiev’s ambivalence toward—and sometimes even acceptance of—these symbols risks breathing new life into the symbols that the West has been trying to eradicate for more than half a century.
“What worries me in the Ukrainian context is that people in leadership positions in the country either don’t recognize or are unwilling to recognize and understand how these symbols are perceived outside of Ukraine,” said Michael Colborne, a researcher with the Bellingcat research group. dealing with the international extreme right. “I think Ukrainians need to realize more and more that these images are undermining support for their country.”
In a program on April 3, a host of the Russian broadcaster NTV, which has been under state control since 2001, juxtaposed footage of a rightwing extremist demonstration in Ukraine with historical footage of a Nazi demonstration.
In a statement, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said that as a nation that suffered enormously under Nazi occupation, we “emphasize that Ukraine categorically condemns any manifestation of Nazism.”
Until here, It isThese images have not diminished international support for Ukrainians.. But it has put diplomats, Western journalists and interest groups in a difficult position: drawing attention to this iconography risks collaborating with Russian propaganda; And if you don’t say anything, these images spread.
Even Jewish groups and antihate organizations, which traditionally denounce symbols of bigotry, have remained largely silent. Privately, some leaders have expressed concern that they might be seen nodding to subjects pertaining to Russian propaganda.
Doubts about the interpretation of these symbols are as controversial as they are persistent and not just in Ukraine. South of US, there are those today who insist that the Confederate States flag symbolizes pride and not its history of racism and secession. The swastika was an important symbol for Hinduism before it was adopted by the Nazis.
In April, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry posted a photo on its Twitter account of a soldier wearing a skull and crossbones insignia, which literally translates to “skull.” The specific symbol in the photo became famous because it was used by a Nazi unit that committed war crimes and guarded concentration camps during World War II.
The skull featured in the photograph has been embroidered onto a Ukrainian flag, beneath which is a small number 6. This emblem is the official image of the British neofolk band Death in June, which according to the NGO Southern Poverty Law Center produces “hate speech” targeting deal with “topics and images of fascism and national socialism”.
The Amphidifamation League considers the skull and crossbones “a symbol of shared hatred.” But the group’s spokesman, Jake Hyman, said it was impossible “to draw any conclusions about the Ukrainian soldier who wore it” based on the emblem alone. “The image, while offensive, is that of a music band,” Hyman said. The band are now using the photo posted by the Ukrainian army to sell skull and crossbones badges.
The New York Times polled Ukraine’s Defense Ministry on April 27 about the tweet. The post was deleted a few hours later. “AAfter investigating the case, we concluded that this logo can be interpreted in an ambiguous manner,” the ministry said in a statement..
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The soldier pictured was part of a volunteer unit called Lobos Da Vinci, formed as part of a paramilitary wing of Ukraine’s Right Sector, a coalition of rightwing organizations and political parties that militarized after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.
At least five other photos on Lobos’ Instagram and Facebook pages show soldiers wearing Nazistyle insignia, including the skull and crossbones.
The NATO military, the alliance Ukraine hopes to join, does not condone such insignia. When these symbols appeared in the past, groups like the AntiDefamation League spoke up and military commanders responded immediately.
Last month, Ukraine’s Ambulance Service posted a photo on Instagram of a first responder wearing a Black Sun symbol, also known as a sun wheel, on display in the palace of Nazi General and SS Director Heinrich Himmler. Sol Negro is popular with neoNazis and white supremacists.
In March 2022, NATO’s Twitter account published a photo of a Ukrainian soldier wearing a similar emblem. Both pictures were quickly taken down.
A Ukrainian military woman wears a black sun on the chest of her uniform in this photo released by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in February. Photo: Armed Forces of Ukraine / Reproduction / Twitter
In November, at a meeting with Times reporters near the front lines, a Ukrainian press secretary wore a variant of the skull and crossbones made by a company called R3ICH (pronounced “rich”). He said he didn’t think the badge had anything to do with Nazism. A second spokesman who was present said other journalists had asked the soldiers to remove the badge before photographing them.
The Black Sun, the sun wheel on display in the palace of Nazi General and SS Director Heinrich Himmler; popular symbol among neoNazis and white supremacists Photo: Shelly Tan / The Washington Post
Ukrainian historian and theologian Ihor Kozlovskii has argued that these symbols have a unique meaning for Ukraine and should be interpreted in terms of how Ukrainians perceive them, rather than in terms of how they are used elsewhere.
“The symbol can survive in any community or story, regardless of how it was used elsewhere on the planet,” Kozlovskii said.
Russian soldiers in Ukraine also wore Nazistyle insignia, underscoring the complexity of interpreting these symbols in a region steeped in Soviet and German history.
A Soviet Union In 1939, the country signed a nonaggression pact with Germany and was therefore surprised when the Nazis invaded Ukraine, then Soviet territory, two years later. Ukraine had suffered tremendously under a Soviet government that orchestrated and implemented a food crisis that claimed millions of lives. At first, many Ukrainians viewed the Nazis as liberators.
Factions of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and their insurgent army fought alongside the Nazis in what they saw as a struggle for Ukrainian sovereignty. Members of these groups also participated in atrocities against Jews and Polish civilians. But later in the war, some of them fought against the Nazis.
A Russian volunteer paramilitary serving in the Ukrainian army wears the emblem of the Nazi Galicia military units and another with the skull and crossbones, a symbol associated with neoNazism. Photo: Ivor Prickett/The New York Times
Some Ukrainians enlisted in Nazi military units such as the Waffen SS Galicia. The badge of the group, commanded by German officers, was a lion and three crowns on a skyblue background.
The group participated in the massacre of hundreds of Polish civilians in 1944. In December, after a year of legal wrangling, the highest level of Ukraine’s judiciary ruled that a governmentfunded institute continued to list the unit’s insignia as delisted Nazi symbols are banned under a 2015 law.
The insignia of the WaffenSS group Galicia, commanded by German officers during World War II and used by Ukrainian soldiers. Photo: AntiDefamation League / Reproduction
Today, as a new generation fights against Russian occupation, many Ukrainians see the war as a continuation of the struggle for independence that took place during and immediately after World War II. Symbols such as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army flag and the Galicia insignia became symbols of antiRussian resistance and national pride.
This makes it difficult to distinguish between Ukrainians angry at the Russian invasion and supporters of farright groups in the country based on the symbols alone.
Units such as the Da Vinci Lobos, the more famous Azov regiment and other groups formed by members of the extreme right were incorporated into the Ukrainian army and played a key role in the defense of Ukraine.
The Azov regiment was celebrated after holding its ground during last year’s siege of the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. The commander of the Lobos Da Vinci, who was killed in March, received heroic honors at his funeral, which Zelenskyy attended.
“I think some of these farright entities contribute some of their own mythology to the public narrative about them,” said Colborne, the researcher. “And I think the least that could and should be done anywhere, not just in Ukraine, is not to allow farright symbols, rhetoric and ideas to invade the public narrative.” / TRANSLATION BY GUILHERME RUSSO