Zelensky branded by fascists?

Far-right underbelly of Ukraine’s “most powerful brand”

“Come to the Dark Side…” The symbol on the right is a kolovrat, or Slavic swastika.

The valknut is sometimes used in place of a swastika because it is visually similar to the swastika and its use is more socially acceptable, especially in jurisdictions where the display of the swastika is prohibited. In Ukraine, it is used occasionally to demonstrate racist views, most often without any affiliation to a specific organization or structure. Due to its popularity, it may be used mistakenly. To determine if a valknut is being used as a hate symbol, it is important to examine the context in which it appears and to check for the presence of other hate symbols.

M-TAC patches with a Black Sun (bottom right) in the background, some more subtle than others. The top left patch says, “I’m coming for you.” The top right, “God wills it,” was a rallying cry of Crusaders.
“Nazi girls” (clockwise from top-left): Afrika Korps, Panzer Princess, Tiger Temptress, MG-42 Mama, & Ilsa.
Seen on the right is a woman wearing the R3ICH patch (magnified by the author), and in the background is a flag of the neo-Nazi Misanthropic Division featuring the original totenkopf symbol.

The brand name SvaStone alludes to the swastika. Its logo is a stylized swastika… The logo and name are exclusively used as a brand that targets far-right consumers… A significant number of the products this brand sells contain or constitute hate symbols.

Although discontinued, the Militarist website still lists a SvaStone shirt honoring Ian Stuart Donaldson, an English neo-Nazi skinhead who died in 1993. One of his bands was called “The Klansmen.”
left: M-TAC, right: SvaStone
Some hashtags used by “Just Hate”: #borntokill, #hatecore, #killenemy, #specialforces
”Grizzly,” pictured with Aleksandr Karasev on the right
In 2017, Andriy Biletsky made a speech wearing M-TAC days after taking a photo with Karasev.
The M-TAC.US model has a “Valhalla” tattoo on his chest. On the bottom left is a valknut. The patch on the right with a Black Sun background is among those sold on the US version of the M-TAC website.

--

--

Sister blog of banderalobby.substack.com

Get the Medium app

A button that says 'Download on the App Store', and if clicked it will lead you to the iOS App store
A button that says 'Get it on, Google Play', and if clicked it will lead you to the Google Play store