images by Zachary Harden, 22 February 2023
Last modified: 2025-02-07 by martin karner
Keywords: ukraine | invasion |
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images by Zachary Harden, 22 February 2023
(Notice: the following content may contain language deemed offensive
and it is only mentioned in written form for vexillological reference
purpose only.)
On February 24, 2022, the first day of the Russian invasion of
Ukraine, the Russian Navy attacked Snake Island, a Ukrainian island in
the Black Sea, and captured it along with its entire garrison,
beginning a military occupation of the island. The attack was widely
publicized when an audio clip of Russian cruiser Moskva hailing the
island's garrison over the radio demanding their surrender and being
told "Russian warship, go fuck yourself!" (Russian: Русский военный
корабль, иди на хуй!, tr. Russky voyenny korabl, idi na khuy,
Ukrainian: рускій Ваєнний карабль нахуй!, romanized: russkij voennyj
korabl idi na hj!) in response went viral, along with initial
inaccurate reports of the garrison's deaths. The expression is attributed to Roman Valentinovych Hrybov
(It is important to notice that due to online censorship, the written
form of the phrase often varies from the original "иди нахуй" to
"(иди) на хуй").
Later on, it emerged that a civilian search
and rescue ship trying to evacuate the soldiers was also captured along with the
garrison. The ship, its crew, and at least one soldier were
subsequently freed in prisoner exchanges.
Following the island's capture, Ukraine launched a campaign against
Russian forces on and around the island, deploying anti-ship missiles
against Russian naval forces and air, artillery, and missile strikes
against Russian positions on the island itself. Russia subsequently
withdrew from the island on 30 June 2022, ending the 126-day military
occupation of the island. Russian bombing against the island continued
thereafter, reportedly causing casualties on the Ukrainian military;
this has been denied by Ukraine. The cruiser Moskva itself was sunk on April 14, 2022.
The flag (pictures: Ukrainian, Russian)
is a horizontal blue background featuring what seems to be
three upward silhouettes with the middle having the shape of a bullet
tip but also resembling the Trident in a gesture which
very much represents extending the middle finger as an offensive hand
gesture. Above, the inscription "РУССКИЙ ВОЕННЫЙ КОРАБЛЬ" and below it
reads "НАХУЙ". (Sources: phrase,
Snake Island,
Moskva)
Esteban Rivera, 21 February 2023
There are a lot of variants of this flag in terms of style; 11 designs just from this website.
Zachary Harden, 22 February 2023
Flag
image by Pete Loeser, 30 July 2023Logo
.jpg)
image located by Esteban Rivera, 21 February 2023
The public union "Creative Patriotic
Association ‘Music Battalion’", MusBat (Ukrainian: Творче патріотичне об єднання
"Музичний Батальйон", МузБат)
was established in 2014. As they describe themselves, "(it) is an association of Ukrainian
professional musicians and poets, which since 2014 has been supporting
the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and
volunteer battalions in
the zone of the so-called ‘Anti-terrorist operation in the East of Ukraine’
with their songs and fiery words." MusBat is engaged in the
popularization of modern Ukrainian song and Ukrainian culture among
young people in such complex multicultural regions as the Danube
region (southwest Odessa region), Transcarpathia and Donbass
(source: https://muzbat.org). They are complex for the strong
influence exerted upon those local communities by Russian settlers.
Notice: The ато
(антитерористичної операції, Anti-terrorist operation),
as it is officially
called in Ukraine, is the Russian undeclared invasion of Ukraine,
which lasted from 2014–2018, starting with the annexation of Crimea and the
destabilization process in the East (War in Donbass and establishment
of pro-Russian separatist republics, see here and
here) and South (Pro Russian demonstrations in Odessa).
The flag is a blue horizontal flag with the logo in the middle, the
logo being the Trident featuring a G
musical note symbol, all in yellow letters. The logo includes the
initials МУЗ
БАТ
in capitals inside. The flag also has the name of
the organization below the logo, also in yellow capital letters.
Esteban Rivera, 21 February 2023
image by Pete Loeser, 3 July 2023
The GIF flag image is based on this YouTube video,
located by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg (still image from 19:33).
The text on the flag is "The glory is gaining thru battle".
Valentin Poposki, 19 March 2023
It is a morale flag of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, named after Daniel
of Galicia. The unit was identified in an Instagram post by the
YouTube creator. The flag can be seen also here.
Zachary Harden, 19 March 2023
See also: 24th Mechanized Brigade
images by Zachary Harden
United24 was established in May 2022 by the Government of Ukraine to
focus on three elements to support the country after Russia launched
their invasion in February 2022.
The three areas are the following:
defense and demining, humanitarian and medical assistance, and
reconstruction of the country.
There have been unofficial flags made to raise awareness of United24,
mostly consisting of their logo placed on their national flag. Two I
could document so far was one used during
London Fashion Week in
February 2023 by Ukrainian designers
(zawya.com, picture)
and one used by British singer Ed Sheeran and the Ukrainian band
Antytila during a concert in Warsaw
(facebook.com, picture).
Zachary Harden, 30 March 2023
As Zachary Harden mentioned, this is a government agency (source:
https://ua.linkedin.com) which runs a cooperation program
with multiple goodwill "ambassadors" (if you will) or supporters,
with
the likes of former football players, film stars, etc. (source)
The name is derived from a 24-hour (permanent) donor drive worldwide. They have been very active
especially in crowdfunding. Similar charities have been established as well, such as the
Ukrainian Freedom Fund.
Esteban Rivera, 30 March 2023
image by Pete Loeser, 24 July 2023
Another charity organization, in this case a televised telethon,
Embrace Ukraine (sources: youtube.com,
bonitatem.org),
which, combined with other media campaigns such as Be Brave Like Ukraine
in coordination with the Ukrainian government, has been established as well.
The flag is a horizontal blue background with a pumping heart with
the colors of the country (blue and yellow) and inside, the country's
map, also in blue and yellow (source, picture).
Esteban Rivera, 30 March 2023
image by Pete Loeser, 30 July 2023
A flag honouring the friendship between Ukraine and the United States
(Photo: Ukrainian tank with attached flag, probably 2022/2023,
source: fdd.org).
The flag shows two hands in national colours with a friendly handshake in front of the flags of Ukraine and the U.S.
located by William Garrison, 8 May 2023
Looking at the photo of the flag on the tank, is it really likely that the wind direction is directly
at right angles to the line of view? I would think it unlikely that the projection we see is the full
aspect ratio: It could well be nearer 3:5 if you take that into account. I could not resolve the shape of
the stars from the Stars-and-Stripes motif, which could provide a clue.
Simon Gardner, 31 July 2023
This one was a real puzzle. I first thought it was a square flag as many military banners are, then
realized it wasn't after examining it more closely. It didn't appear long enough in the single picture we
have found so far to be a standard size. The 3:4 ratio was my best guess, but I am hopeful a better
picture will turn up so the image can be corrected, if necessary.
Pete Loeser, 31 July 2023
image by Tomislav TodorovicThat's the Russian Volunteer Corps. This group and the Freedom of Russia Legion (see below) both attack
Russia from inside Ukraine. I'm not sure how much protection that border gives, but however it is,
they use it as their starting point to liberate Russia from the Kremlin.
(photo, photo)
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 June 2023
The emblem on this flag is a sword superimposed on a shield charged
with a chevron. This resembles the emblem of a Russian neo-Nazi
emigrant organization named Russian Center, which was founded in Kyiv
in 2015, whose emblem has the ring instead of the shield, a
differently shaped sword and lacks a double border [1]. This, in turn,
seems to have been derived from the emblem of an earlier emigrant
organization named White Idea, which was active between two World Wars
[1]. It is quite possible that the same people were involved in
founding both the Russian Center and the Russian Volunteer Corps.
The photos available online reveal a very dark blue field [2, 3, 4]
which, depending on the lighting conditions, may look almost
indistinguishable from black [5, 6] or, on the contrary, rather light,
especially if the source of light is behind the flag [7, 8, 9].
The GIF flag image is derived from the SVG image of the emblem from
Wikimedia Commons.
Sources:
[1] Russian Volunteer Corps at Wikipedia (in Russian)
[2] GOROD SUMY.ua website
[3] 24 Kanal television station website (picture)
[4] Liepajniekiem.lv website
[5] BBC Ukraine website
[6] Ukrinform news agency website
[7] Spektr website
[8] Zaborona website (picture)
[9] Znaj.UA website
Tomislav Todorovic, 2/3 July 2023
Additionally, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) (русский добровольческий корпус (РДК))
has been fighting alongside Ukraine
since 2014 and is currently considered to be (operationally speaking)
part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine
(aka Ukrainian Foreign Legion).
The group was established on December 27, 2014, the same day as the Russian
Liberation Army (ROA), only 72 years apart (ROA in 1942).
Esteban Rivera, 2 July 2023
image by Tomislav Todorovic
The previous flag was a St. Andrews (Saltire) black background and
white cross and was used between 2014–2022, when they were embedded as
part of Azov Units (picture, picture / source).
They claim a lineage in the continuation of both the Russian
Liberation Army as well as both, the Volunteer army (Добровольческая армия)
and Markovtsy (Марковцы, derived from Serguéi Leonidovich
Markov, a General), the latter two which were Russian military formations that
took part on the "White movement" (1917–1922) side during the Russian Civil War
(1918–1922), also known as White Russia or Russian White Army, later to
be known officially as "Russian State" (Росси́йское госуда́рство)
(1918–1922), itself a (failed) attempt at a continuation of the Russian Empire (<1917),
which finally succumbed to the Bolsheviks and led to the establishment of the
Soviet Union.
Sources in Russian:
Russian Volunteer Corps Website
https://ru.wikipedia.org...
https://ru.wikipedia.org...
https://ru.wikipedia.org...
https://ru.wikipedia.org...
https://ru.wikipedia.org...
https://ru.wikipedia.org...
Sources in English (located by Pete Loeser):
Wikipedia: White Movement
Wikipedia: Russian Civil War
Wikipedia: Russian Volunteer Army
Wikipedia: Russian state (1918–1920)
Esteban Rivera, 2 July 2023
On 2014-12-27, the Russian Company was formed within the Battalion
North of the Azov Regiment. It used the black flag with a white
saltire, which had originally been used by the Markovites (Марковцы,
Markovtsy), a series of the White Movement units during the Russian
Civil War which were named after General Sergei Leonidovich Markov
(1878–1918). In late 2015, Russian volunteers from this and other
units have formed the Military Association "Russian Volunteer"
(Русский Доброволец),
still within the Azov Regiment, which kept using the same flag. After the Russian Volunteer
Corps was founded in August 2022, the Association transferred its flag to them in December of the
same year.
The Markovite flag is derived from the Russian naval ensign.
Its black and white colors symbolize the readiness to die for Russia
and the "resurrection of the homeland", respectively.
Sources:
Russian Volunteer Corps at Wikipedia (in Russian)
Telegra.ph website
Markovites at Wikipedia (in Russian)
Tomislav Todorovic, 7 July 2023
See also: Russian Volunteers 1917–1920
images by Tomislav Todorovic
That's the Freedom of Russia Legion [flag inscription: "Svoboda Rossii", Freedom of Russia].
This group and the Russian Volunteer Corps (see above) both attack Russia from inside Ukraine.
I'm not sure how much protection that border gives, but however it is, they use it as their
starting point to liberate Russia from the Kremlin.
(photo, photo, source: Nozomi Kariyasu's Facebook page)
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 June 2023
The source photos reported by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg actually display the flag variant with
a much larger emblem (about 7/9 of the flag width) and a more oblong overall form (ratio about 3:5).
More photos of the flag:
https://novayagazeta.eu... (picture)
https://world.comments.ua... (picture)
https://www.dsnews.ua... (picture)
https://www.facebook.com... (picture)
Both GIF flag images are derived from the SVG image from Wikimedia Commons.
Tomislav Todorovic, 25 June 2023
See also: • Republic of Novgorod / Opposition to Vladimir Putin flag (Russia)
> Version from Dagestan
•
What is the New Russian Peace Flag? (Video by History With Hilbert, 2022)
image by Pete Loeser
This commercially sold variant defaces the Ukrainian National flag with the Freedom of Russia Legion Shield.
Pete Loeser, 2 July 2023 (not on mailing list)
image located by Martin Karner
(source)
image located by William GarrisonWilliam Garrison sent an image of a variant flag with the "Stop Putin Stop War" slogan. It's the
Ukrainian national flag with this two-line slogan in inverted colours, added with a red (bloody) palm
print in the lower half. The "Stop Putin Stop War" emblem exists in a plethora of different forms:
flags, banners, placards, stickers, buttons, selfmade artwork etc. (see here)
Martin Karner, 7 August 2023
image located by Esteban Rivera
(source)
.jpg)
image located by Esteban RiveraThe Humanitarian Center of Kharkiv region, formally BO Charitable Foundation "Humanitarian Center
of Kharkiv Oblast" is a non-profit organization operating in Kharkiv County,
established in early March 2022.
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/Humcenterkharkiv
https://platforma.volunteer.country...
The flag is a horizontal flag with a middle white stripe sort of
uniting the two (top and bottom) stripes (top in yellow and bottom in
green) featuring the logo (with inscription in English) followed by
the name in Ukrainian in green capitals.
Esteban Rivera, 12 September 2023
image located by Esteban Rivera
(source)
.jpg)
image located by Esteban Rivera The Ukrainian Food Banks Federation, UFBF) is a non-profit organization, UFBF, founded on
October 21, 2022 and on December 5, the Board of Directors decided to
grant the temporary status (one year) of FEBA Associate Member
replacing the Kyiv City Charity Foundation "Food Bank". It was set up
with the support of the European Food Banks Federation (FEBA)
(official website: https://www.eurofoodbank.org), a non-profit
organisation that brings together food banks in 30 European countries.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FEBA has
responded immediately and launched the #AllTogether4Ukraine campaign
to support Ukrainians, including helping to build a network of food
banks in Ukraine."
Sources:
https://www.uafoodbank.org/en/our-history
https://www.eurofoodbank.org/feba-supports-ukraine/
https://www.youtube.com... (Video: Introducing UFBF)
The flag is a white horizontal background with the logo in the middle,
with the organization's name on top in Ukrainian black capitals and on
bottom in English blue capitals.
For additional information go to
UA Food Bank (official website).
Esteban Rivera, 12 September 2023
still image located by Esteban Rivera
(video source)
.jpg)
image located by Esteban RiveraHeroCar (ГеройCar), more formally "Car for Hero" is a
project started in 2023 by the Ruslan Shostak Foundation, also known as
Ruslan Shostak Charitable Fund, that aims to
provide troops fighting the Russian invasion in off-road
conditions with 1000 reliable and durable road transportation
(Ford F250, F350 and SsangYong Actyon cars and pick-up trucks), for
which a single national platform has been created for accepting
applications, fixing air transport needs, collecting funds and
servicing wartime transport.
Cars are bought at auctions in the USA and delivered to Ukraine via
Europe. Here, cars undergo technical inspection: mandatory replacement
of batteries, oil, and filters. Cars are repainted in camouflage
colors. Spare parts are purchased for the possibility of replacing
parts directly at their locations of origin.
This initiative is part of the "Guardians of
the sky" (Вартові неба) initiative
in order to support the air defense (source).
Sources:
https://carforhero.com/en (English)
https://www.facebook.com/carforheroua/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/car-for-hero/
https://uk.wikipedia.org... (Ukrainian)
https://uk.wikipedia.org... (Ukrainian)
The flag is a white horizontal background with the logo in the middle,
the logo being the words "Герой" (hero) on top and "Car" on
bottom, each word followed by a skid mark in the colors of the
country's flag and below an unidentified inscription (picture of
reverse, source).
For additional information go to
Car for Hero (official website).
Esteban Rivera, 12 September 2023
image by Zachary Harden, 29 December 2023
Flag of the "Support Azov" foundation (photo,
source).
It is an charitable foundation that meets the needs of the Third Separate Assault Brigade
of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The foundation's volunteers are wounded fighters undergoing rehabilitation
and experienced volunteer activists.
Website: https://supportazov.com/en
located by William Garrison, 29 December 2023
image located by William Garrison
(source)
Caption: "This flag combines the visual elements of the Russian Federation and the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), symbolizing camaraderie and mutual solidarity. The red field
featuring North Korea's white-bordered red star is paired with bold white, blue, and diagonal orange-and-black
bands reminiscent of the St. George ribbon. These black and orange stripes form a 'Z'-like pattern; the 'Z'
has gained prominence as a symbol of Russia's military operations and nationalistic sentiment, often
interpreted as 'За победу' (for victory) or
'Запад' (West)."
At the left there appears to be a white flagpole sleeve.
William Garrison, 29 January 2025
