I suppose the pushback from backers of the war isn't surprising. The Cyrillic letter for 'Z' looks like a number 3. With the different theories where do you think to came from:
Next time you see film of Russian Vehicles in the Ukraine note the large "Z" that has been painted on many of them. Also the letter Z is not in The Russian alphabit
it lets russian polots know that the marked object should not be bombed. mission specific friendly fire deterrent. smart ukrainians would begin to mark their own stuff. there is no "z" in Cyrillic alphabet so it might be just a random symbol.
I think that would be a bad idea except in very specific circumstances. Ukrainians are probably no more fond of friendly fire than Russians. Since they're all using very similar (sometimes exactly the same) equipment, with many Ukrainians having non-standardized uniforms, I would imagine both the Ukrainians and the Russians would tend to prefer to know who is friend and who is foe. Additionally, impersonating the enemy, while certainly a useful tactic, is usually a very bad strategy, as it causes both sides to become more likely to shoot at their own forces suspecting someone with friendly markings to be an enemy in disguise.
You have to kneel before Putin... The guy is 3feet tall... Me, I'd stay standing and give him the Benny Hill slaps on the head
It's not a randim symbol. It indicates where the equipment is coming from in the special military operation. Z from east, O from Belarus, V, and A from Crimea.
It's probably simple. I'd bet it has to do with Zelinsky. Something along the lines of "we're coming for you Zelinsky and there's nothing you can do to stop us".
