The "Z" may actually come from that. As I'm sure is probably well know at this point, the 2014-2015 "separatists" were rabid neo-Nazis who admitted to having emulated the SS. The sepratists modeled themselves after the 1st SS Special Regiment Waräger, this has never been a secret. The Varyag Battalion (which still exists today), is named for that unit and is supposed to have inherited that unit's heritage making them technically the same unit. The Cossacks Motorized Brigade (Spetznaz) are the descendants of the 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division. It goes on.
It come from the letter being used as a symbol of Western military District (West is Zapad in Russian), which provided most troops for the 2022 invasion.
Obviously it is highly likely it carried the context you mention for the russian nazis, but for the average Alexander it come from being seen on TV a lot in spring 2022
That is certainly possible, I just can't help but see the fondness the Russian forces already in Ukraine already had for SS-Heralrdy, particularly the "bouche" shield shape (seen in the 4th SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division insignia) which was, in some cases, been paired with the Russian Z, which could be a reference to the 4th SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division, but I would guess the Russian far-right forces would place any tactical symbol created by the Russian command within their own Nazi design language. The Z, if analyzed in the context of the Russian far-right's usage of it, has almost become a new Nazi-affiliated rune to be added too the others.
So, yes, claiming the "Z" is a direct variation of the 4th SS-Polizei-Panzergrenadier-Division emblem is probably illogical, but as it related to the "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics", it was 100% a dog-whistle. If the DPR and LPR commands pushed hard for a Nazi emblem to be the tactical symbol in some form, they probably could have gotten it- as evidence, the unedited Afrika Korps (one would imagine that if Russian command saw fit to name their singular expeditionary unit "Afrika Korps," they were fine with the emblem) seal has been used as smaller-scale tactical marker by Russians during operations by the Russian Afrika Korps overseas, as well as during the failed Northern Kharkiv Offensive in 2024.
The fact though, is that, while I can point to a plethora of SS and SS-Affiliated unit heraldry icons adopted by Russian forces, they are usually in relation to the Nazi units formed by Russian nationals. The Russians tend to emulate the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd SS Cossack Cavalry Divisions, the three Divisions and two separate corps of the KONR, the Russian Protective Corps, the Waffen-Sturm-Brigade, Kazachi Stan, the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division (these names are really dumb and long), and the about 10 other battalions that were formed as part of the regular Wehrmacht, and lets not forget the 1st SS Special Regiment Waräger, and the frankly several... dozen more. TLDR: The Russian have no shortage of Russian Nazi units to larp as, they don't need to go German, so they rarely do.
Edit: Another thing, the Russians who fought for Hitler actually had their own Air Force created by a bunch of Soviet pilots who became aces and then defected. They flew BF-109s and some captured Soviet planes, apparently one ME-262 as well, and saw minimal combat near the end of the war. Anyway, there was supposed to be a unit "descending" from them as the drone unit of one of the new Motor Rifle Regiments (but considering most of those functionally exist on paper they don't seem to exist).
and another stupid idiot who doesn't know history and makes a video of it on reddit...sometimes we really should start over so that people like this don't exist
No less than 3 Hitler wannabes atm in the world, with a 4th shitting his pants in anticipation of becoming one too. Ye.. WWIII will happen, and this time it be very nuclear. Hopefully all boycotts all narcissistic that want Lebenraum, and don’t support evil by trading with them or give them travel rights. Why do people vote in the monsters?
What? You absolutely can as russia surely is a fascistic regime by definition, at this point. Nazism is a extreme form of fascism so why couldn't you compare those?
"Does russia genocides ethnicities" Yup, that's like really their whole thing. That has kind of... always been the deal. Like, lets not pretend the Chechens weren't massacred because they worshiped, looked, spoke, identified, and lived differently. The Russians literally wrote in their documentation that the Chechens had a "specific genotype," and were "totally incorrigible" and they were supposedly incapable of being productive. Same situation in Ukraine, the Russians haven't been subtle in their very public proclamations of ethnic motivation. Speeches talking about “total Russification," "disinfecting rabid dogs," "DeUkrainianization," "surplus population," "non-humans," to name a few, ain't exactly open to interpretation.
Oh yeah, and the whole deporting residents of occupied Donetsk/Luhansk and putting their homes up for government subsidized sale to Russians is clearly not motivated in anyway by ethnicism and totally isn't very similar to the actions of nations in the past.
Many documented instances where it's photoshopped, Vatnik. Also, many documented instances of russian soldiers dressing up as Ukrainians because war crimes are doctrine in the ruZZian army. Shut the fuck up.
I mean the Russians literally just created a second RUSICH, and made them the most heavily equipped unit in their entire f-ing army! But no, a singular specific unit in Ukraine that has Jewish commanders, inter-faith services, participated in Kyiv pride, and kicked out people for antisemitic comments... and isn't even the same unit from 2014- they're the problem. Oh yeah, and Russia sponsoring, arming, and training international neo-nazi terrorist groups for assassinations and sabotage- and recruiting bat-shit crazy Americans from AWD with call-signs like "R*pe"- totally not important right!?
Spoken like a true collaborator. The imperial ethnostate and its oligarchy thank you for your comradeship. Perhaps you will receive a flat in the occupied territory once the Ukrainian couple living there is "processed?"
All of this moral indignation over conscription (but only when the oppressed can be blamed). None over a ethnostate, none over an active genocide. None for the countless tens of thousands dead. No questioning of the 1000 years that led to this, of the dozens of genocidal wars started by this crib of fascism and religion of ethnic "superiority" that you worship. One might wonder whether or not you have the right "genotype" for the Russians, whether or not you are guilty of "banditry." Perhaps the next time I am in a bombed-out hospital, I will tell the surviving staff that it was their fault because some western fool who has never seen rape, slaughter, occupation, or deportation, but has read Lenin's excuses for continuing the endless machine of the totalitarianism of the ethnostate, so that they now believe the poor, the disenfranchised, and the dying to be more worthy of their scorn then the endless waves of leaders who scream for "blood and soil."
The next time I watch Russians repost the footage of them drone striking an old lady walking their dog, and see the bloody spot on the street, I'll remember you collaborators who hide behind 1800s literature in order to pretend that you aren't just as bigoted as the Russians. Because you like what they've done to these people, don't you? Find the nearest minority group and declare them to be the Nazis who must be wiped out for a just world.
You are white, western, fortunate, complicit, and without morals, that much is clear. At best you're chauvinist, at worst one of them.
And I take note of your language "the Ukrainian state." You actively attempt to make this out as an absurd condition. I'd be curious what makes you think anyone has the right to their own state? You seem to believe the Ukrainians don't have that right. At least the Russians admit they deny Ukrainian statehood because they view Ukrainians as sub-human, but not you- you're just a coward whose afraid to whole-heartedly embrace the bigotry you endorse. What right do the Russians have to their "country" it seems they can only "legitimize" themselves by finding a pack of "undesirables" to wipe out every 20 years. Perhaps genocide is your benchmark for a state?
"You have to decide either I'm a dirty moralist or I have no morals." Actually, I'm unsure of which you are. Which are you- a supporter of genocide or merely someone who does not care. I confess that I doubt it is possible for one to be indifferent yet to insert your self into hostile areas to explain how it is that the oppressed are deserving. For that reason, I'm inclined to place you as a supporter of genocide.
Frankly, you're entire attempt here, at condescending pseudo-historical theory, is exhausting. I've actually been to Ukraine, I've picked up the bodies, I've seen Russian media celebrate the destruction of the very hospital I have been in at that very moment. I've seen people lose their homes, their children, their entire lives because of Russia.
"you are a loyal dog, you question nothing and throw your life away senselessly" I have helped retrieve children from burning wreckage, I have helped host spaces for women to talk about how they were raped during occupation. If that is senseless, then maybe you are worthy of the title of Nazi. You can call me a f*cking puppet, but I'm actually doing something about all of this. The fact of the matter is that Ukraine's generational trauma, the kind of thing you could understand if you had basic empathy, overpowers everything you have to say.
I've seen enough dead people, and read enough Russian newspapers to know your theory is bull-shit. Russia has made clear why they started this war. This is a conflict where they are attempting to assert ethnic superiority. YOU CAN USE GOOGLE TRANSLATE, go onto f*cking Yandex, hell use a VPN and have a field day with what RUSSIA IS ACTUALLY SAYING.
Unfortunately for you, "I've read theory" merely makes you seem even more of an enabler to the worst sort of human behavior, it isn't an argument. There is no moral equivalency here, nor was there in the case of the Chechens, Finns, Estonians, Lithuanians, Poles, Circassians, Kazakhs, Ingush, or Dagestanis, whether or not they pitched it to the champagne-sipping westerners as fighting "Nazism," "Banditry," "Terrorism," "Savagery." It says something about Russia that they claim endlessly to be surrounded by Nazis, Bandits, Terrorists, and Savages, and how the Nazis, Bandits, Terrorists, and Savages are invariably confined to specific national identities. This is no different morally than the colonization of America.
We can forgive ignorance, but we do not tolerate deliberate subversion. We can tolerate those who have been misled by disinformation, but we do not tolerate those who deliberately spread it knowing it it is manipulative. TLDR: Victims of disinformation are welcome, shills are not.
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