KYIV, Ukraine — Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainian government and NATO allies have posted, then quietly deleted, three seemingly innocuous photographs from their social media feeds: a soldier standing in a group, another resting in a trench and an emergency worker posing in front of a truck. In each photograph, Ukrainians in uniform wore patches featuring symbols that were made notorious by Nazi Germany and have since become part of the iconography of far-

Get out your bingo cards for this one. I stopped after these five gave me an immediate win:

  • Bellingcat

  • "Ukraine is extra anti-nazi because they know what it's like to be occupied by them"

  • "But also they don't know these are nazi symbols"

  • "And pointing them out is Russian propaganda"

  • "And the idea that they're really just nazis like they say they are is nazi propaganda"

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  • Hideaway [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    This article is much like what decentralized propaganda systems do. They don't write the propaganda themselves, but they write an article that provides a framework about how to write about the issue. Important points are emphasized for repetition: these marks are fringe, Ukraine is against them but is in a corner and can't refuse their help, it's a messy history and that's all that need be said about it so don't harp on it, anyone who broadcasts the nazi shit is a Russian shill, and Ukraine's government is the worst offender by posting nazi photos on their official social media (subtext: don't YOU do this either).