"They are probably signals that tell which units are heading to the northeast or northwest of a district, for example." "Often these symbols will be location-based - they will communicate where the unit is going," Michael Clarke, former director of defence of the think tank RUSI, told Sky. (When the markings were first spotted before the invasion, some observers thought it representative of pre-invasion markings, meaning: 'preparations completed'} "A" is the symbol of special operations forces (SPETSNAZ).
The "V" is a symbol for Marines - other interpretations indicate armed forces from the Brest region of Belarus,the symbol The circle or "O" identifies vehicles from Belarus - some interpretations suggest that these are Belarusian vehicles, but this is not confirmed, "Z" in a square or circle identifies Russian vehicles coming from Crimea, "Z" is the symbol for the Russian armed forces in the east, who are involved in operations in the Donetsk region,the Z - ZVO (ZVO), V - VVO (VVO), △ - SVO, / - most likely CVO. Since they were first written about the markings and their meaning has had lots of variations seen, and the most copy pasted meaning version is this: Note that it was done last minute (some reports 21 Feb), just before rolling in, so that the OPFOR would not be aware of them or find out their meaning well before.Įxample: Both countries use variants of the bronyetransportyor, armored transporter: So to that end, Russian vehicles were daubed with Z on them to identify them as friendly to their own forces. This is further complicated by the fact that some Russian units were seen with very similar camouflage. In some ways the only other way to identify would have been camouflage painted on but in fog of war that might not always work as well. To that end, with both Russia and Ukraine meeting on the battleground, they would be using equipment, that to the layman's eye, or to civilians, to those untrained, and to those without time to confirm identity, looked identical to each other. Since then it has manufactured its own military equipment but their ancestry is usually quite obvious. When Ukraine was part of the USSR, it had substantial manufacturing capacity, not least in terms of military vehicles and equipment.Īfter the breakup, Ukraine found itself with both factories and a large amount of now ex-Soviet inventory. The most common explanation, usually from those with military experience, is that it is a form of IFF - identification, friend or foe.