Why did the letter Z become a symbol for the war in Russia?

Russian athlete investigated for controversial detail in uniform 1:40

(CNN) --

In late February, days before Russian forces launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine, videos and photos began circulating on social media showing tanks, communications trucks and rocket launchers emblazoned with the letter "Z." rolling towards the border.

Digital sleuths speculated what the "Z," written in the Roman alphabet instead of Cyrillic, might indicate about Moscow's next moves.

Military experts interpreted the "Z" as "Za pobedy", which is Russian for "for victory", or as "Zapad", which means "West".

Some dubbed the vehicles painted with the symbol "Fox Squad," while others suggested the "Z" could stand for the Kremlin's supposed "number one target," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Soldiers in uniforms without insignia stand next to an armored vehicle with a "Z" symbol painted on the side, in the separatist-controlled village of Bugas in Ukraine's Donetsk region.

Aric Toler, a researcher at Bellingcat, an open-source research operation that has been monitoring Russian military operations since Moscow fomented a war in eastern Ukraine eight years ago, said on February 20 that the group had no idea what that the symbol "Z" stood for and that he had not seen it used before.

"So assume the worst I guess/fear," he wrote on Twitter.

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Russian defense policy expert Rob Lee, who has been tracking the "Z" vehicles since troops began massing at the gates of Ukraine, suggested the symbol could refer to military contingents assigned to fighting in the country.

"It appears that Russian forces near the border are painting markings, in this case 'Z', on vehicles to identify different task forces or links," tweeted Lee, a doctoral student in the War Studies Department at King's College in New York. London, February 19.

But in the days since Moscow ordered the bloody assault on Ukraine, what began as a mysterious military symbol has become a sign of popular support for the war in Russia, and what analysts describe as the deployment of a new and chilling nationalist movement.

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Russians have daubed the "Z" on their cars, donned black hoodies emblazoned with the symbol and made makeshift "Z" pins on their lapels, a sign that there is some popular support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin, and his efforts to expand Moscow's sphere of influence by seizing parts of Ukraine.

"The authorities launched a propaganda campaign to garner popular support for their invasion of Ukraine and they are succeeding in a big way," Kamil Galeev, an independent researcher and former fellow at the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan Washington political think tank, wrote in an email. an entire Twitter thread about the use of the "Z" symbol in propaganda videos and by Russians on social media.

"This symbol invented just a few days ago became a symbol of the new Russian national ideology and identity," Galeev added.

A tank emblazoned with a "Z", photographed in an area controlled by Donetsk separatists

As the Kremlin tightens its grip on any news of Russian casualties or mishaps on their way home -- enforcing an extraordinary new law that makes spreading "false" information a jail-breaking crime -- - Putin's supporters increase their support for the war.

At a hospice in Kazan, a city in Russia's southwestern region of Tatarstan, terminally ill children were asked to form a "Z" outside in the snow to show support for the Russian military operation.

"Our patients and the entire team took part in it, about 60 people in all. People lined up in the shape of the letter 'Z,'" Vladimir Vavilov, president of a cancer charity that runs the hospice, said in a statement. .

"In our left hand we held flyers with the flags of LPR, DPR, Russia and Tatarstan and clenched our fist with our right hand."

Vavilov was referring to the Luhansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic, separatist-controlled areas in eastern Ukraine that Putin recognized last month as independent states as part of a plot to invade the country.

The "Z" symbol has also emerged among members of Russia's lower house of Parliament, the Duma.

Maria Butina was convicted of serving as an unregistered foreign agent in the United States trying to infiltrate prominent conservative political circles before and after the 2016 elections. She now represents the Kirov region for the United Russia political party, which supports Putin, and has endorsed the war in posts on his Telegram channel.

Terminally ill children and hospice staff lined up to form a "Z."

Butina took to the platform to share a clip of herself drawing a white "Z" on the lapel of her blazer, and updated her profile to a selfie wearing a black T-shirt with a white "Z" on it.

“Keep up the work, brothers.

We are with you.

Forever,” she said in the video clip, clenching her fist.

Correspondents reporting from Ukraine for the Russian state news network Rossiya-24 have sported the "Z" on bulletproof vests.

Images from Russia's major cities shared over the weekend showed convoys of cars with white "Z's" taped to the windows, honking horns and waving huge Russian flags.

At the Gymnastics World Cup in Doha, Qatar, Russian athlete Ivan Kuliak wore the badge on the medal podium while standing next to Ukraine's Illia Kovtun, the gold medalist.

And in two cleverly produced propaganda videos circulating on social media, young Russians wearing black T-shirts and hoodies emblazoned with the letter "Z" and the hashtag #СвоихНеБросаем, or "we do not abandon our own," wave Russian flags. and express their support for Putin's war, singing: "For Russia, for the president. For Russia, for Putin!"

Conflict Russia - Ukraine