6 April 2023
Anna Bowles is a pro-Ukrainian activist from the UK, and from 23 March to 6 April she is in East and South Ukraine, with her friends from the Freefilmers NGO, interviewing local people – especially women in rural communities – about their experiences and survival strategies. Anna is blogging about her trip here – we are also republishing some of her blogs on Rights in Russia, but please also visit Anna’s site. You can donate here to support the people Anna meets.
Army recruitment posters in Zaporizhzhia
Below is a video of the road out of Zaporizhzhia city. About 20% of the billboards in Zaporizhzhia are of this kind (I saw some further north and west, but not as many), and one particular arterial road has a concentration of them. They’re not strictly army recruitment posters, they are recruitments for specific brigades which are centrally managed by the Ministry of Defence, but I’ve titled the post ‘army’ for ease of comprehension.
They all say:
Offensive Guard
Join us: storm.mvs.gov.ua
Then there’s a different message for each brigade.
Azov (beige): UNBREAKABLE INVISIBLE UNSTOPPABLE
Red Viburnum (red): RED FLAME OFFENSIVE
Kara-Dag (black): LET’S RAISE THE FLAG OVER CRIMEA (Kara-Dag is a mountain in Crimea)
Spartan (lilac): UNITED BY THE SPIRIT OF ATTACK
Storm (dark blue) (there’s a specific brigade called this, as well as it being the collective term sometimes used in the news): OCCUPIER, THE STORM IS COMING
Steel Border (brown): FIRST AT THE BORDER, FIRST AT THE ATTACK
Frontier (green): WE WILL RETURN THE LEGAL BORDERS OF THE COUNTRY
And then the grey one is a furniture showroom ad.
