The letter 'Z' does not appear in written Russian or Ukrainian.

[eppur_se_muova]

Most of us are aware that Russian is not written in the Modern Roman Alphabet with which we are familiar, and which is shared by many European and even non-Western languages (sometimes with slight modifications). Instead, it uses the Cyrillic Alphabet, some version of which is used by many Eastern European and Central Asiatic languages.

As far as I can tell, the letter Z or z does not appear in any version of the Cyrillic Alphabet. The phonetic equivalent normally looks rather the number 3, written in rounded form:

З з

So why are the tanks and other vehicles of Putin's army emblazoned with a conspicuous Z, a letter not found in their native script ? I haven't seen any comments on this, but perhaps I missed it.

The only thing I can think of is an attempt to associate themselves with the terrible hordes found in zombie horror fiction such as World War Z. If so, the decision to present their forces as the Walking Dead seems awkwardly prophetic.

[Skittles]

1. because Q would be too obvious

?

[eppur_se_muova]

4. I like it. nt

[Lovie777]

2. Got me ......

Whoever selected the alphabet Z is a total puzzlement. Weird.

If there is no Z, why is Ukraine's president last name starts with a Z?

[eppur_se_muova]

3. They use that phoneme, not that symbol.

З з is the Cyrillic symbol for that sound.


Ukrainian: Володимир Олександрович Зеленський; Russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, romanized: Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy

[Carlitos Brigante]

5. I watched this whole video and still can't say I fully get it:

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Thanks, will have to play that after my sound is restored. nt

[Budi]

7. From google . Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei

Na·zi
/ˈnätsē/
noun
*HISTORICAL
a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

*History and Etymology for Nazi
German, by shortening & alteration from Nationalsozialist, from national national + Sozialist socialist.

Snip
During the years that led to WWII, the word “Nazi” was used as a derogatory term against the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP, translated in English as National Socialist German Worker’s Party.

Headed by Adolf Hitler, the NSDAP was a party which rode to power on the wings of far-right politics. During the 1920s, when the party was not much of a threat, political opponents referred to the party dismissively as “Nazi.”
******
Maybe Putin should have used an S.
As in SS, or maybe the Z was intended specifically for Zelensky.

Wait ...

Here's an explanation specifically for Ukraine invasion.

Subsequently, it became a militarist symbol used in Russian propaganda[9] and by Russian civilians as a sign of support for the invasion. Outside Russia, the symbol has been banned from public display in various localities. The "Z" symbol has been called a zwastika in the media, in reference to the Nazi swastika.

Link for more on the Z used in the current invasion.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(military_symbol)#:~:text=The%20Latin%2Dscript%20letter%20Z,2022%20Russian%20invasion%20of%20Ukraine.

Regardless, its a symbol of Hitlerism.

That's all I got.

[relayerbob]

8. Because it's easy to see and recognize

The purpose is for identification at a distance, so that they don't shoot at their own vehicles - especially important when the Ukrainians use the same equipment. We do similar things withy combat identification panels that are visible with IR goggles. In WW2, we had D-day invasion stripes on aircraft and other vehicales for the same reason. Nothing particularly noteworthy in the "Z" - ir's easy to paint. The Russians also used V and other markings depending on their particular front.

https://archive.armorama.com/features/388/index.htm

[keithbvadu2]

9. Zwastika