The “black sun” is shining in Ukraine

The Nazi symbol “Black Sun” on the uniforms of some Ukrainian soldiers, which was even announced by NATO, by chance gave a symbolic explanation of Putin’s de-nazification of Ukraine

By Biljana Mitrinovic Rasevic

One detail on the uniforms of Ukrainian soldiers, difficult to notice and recognizable only to those familiar with the matter, has recently started a controversy on social networks, and then in the media, whether the Ukrainian army should be denazified, as Vladimir Putin demands. Thanks to the photos of Ukrainian soldiers with the symbol “black sun”, which began to appear on social media, and NATO is responsible for publishing one of them, a discussion was launched on the use of this Nazi symbol and how it appeared on the uniforms of Ukrainian soldiers . Thus, three weeks after the start of the war in Ukraine, Putin’s goal of denazifying the Ukrainian army received its specific explanation.

Wanting to congratulate women from Ukraine on March 8, NATO posted a collage of photos of women doing various jobs on their Twitter account. One picture shows a girl wearing a symbol of the “black sun”, the “sun wheel”, which was used by the Nazis and Satanists in some of their rituals. It consists of two circles in which twelve symbols of the sun’s rays are symmetrically arranged, similar to the symbols used by the SS in its logo.

As users reacted on “Twitter”, warning that it was a Nazi symbol, NATO removed the tweet from its account. A spokesman for the alliance told the BBC, which was the first to publish the news, that the publication with the photo, which was taken from the archives of an international organization, was removed when they realized that it “contains a symbol that we cannot confirm as official”.

Believers in the white race superiority

In another photo, taken by Ukrainian photo-reporter Anastasia Vlasova and published on Getty Images on Twitter, the “black sun” symbol can be seen on the equipment of a Ukrainian soldier helping evacuate civilians near Kiev. The British agency writes that the symbol in different versions is used by different cultures around the world, among them the ancient Nordic and Celtic communities.

He also quoted the anti-Semitic organization ADL as saying that it should not be immediately assumed that the symbol necessarily signifies racism or “white supremacy”, but that the “black sun” is one of several European symbols adopted by the Nazis in an attempt to create an idealized Aryan race.

The BBC also cites a report by the human rights organization Freedom House, which states that the “black sun” is often used in Ukraine as a symbol of extreme right-wing ideology and is an integral part of the military insignia of the Azov Battalion. a nationalist battalion fighting pro-Russian separatist groups in the east. ” This battalion initially consisted of voluntary extreme forces, but was later included in the regular composition of the Ukrainian army, and receives orders from the commander of the National Guard.

The symbol of the “black sun” is used by neo-fascists, neo-Nazis, extreme right-wing organizations and members of groups and movements that believe that the white race is superior and the only one worthy of survival. The symbol often appears on their flags, T-shirts, posters, websites and in extremist publications that are associated with such groups. The data indicate that modern extreme right-wing groups often call this symbol the “sun wheel”.

Connection to Heinrich Himmler

History says that Heinrich Himmler – commander of SS units and the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany, who was in charge of designing and leading the implementation of the “final solution to the Jewish question” – deserved the introduction of this symbol as Nazi. In 1933, he bought Wevelsburg Castle near Paderborn in Germany to make it an exclusive SS center. Himmler ordered the castle to be expanded and rebuilt for ceremonial purposes. At that time, this symbol with 12 dark green granite “sun rays” was made on the white marble floor of the “General Hall”, like the ones used in the SS logo.