That cross was (and still is) a sign of protection. If you go to Buddhist temples in SE Asia, you'll see it everywhere. It's a very old symbol.
Of course, we also know that it was co-opted by the Nazis and became a symbol of fascism and white supremacy.
But for Ukraine, it may represent a third thing, Ukrainian nationalism. After Stalin's depraved efforts to more equitably distribute Ukrainian farmland in 1936-37 which resulted in 3-4 million dead or missing Ukrainian farmers, there was significant and quite understandable resentment in the province against the USSR and the communist party. Starving the country to death and either torturing or killing millions because you can't stand the idea of Ukrainians keeping their ancestral farm land will generate some animosity. So when the Wehrmacht rolled in in 1941, the Ukrainians saw them as liberators. For Ukrainian nationalists, the fascists were the solution to the communists, and they happily helped the Germans kill Red Army soldiers. I strongly suspect this is why homeboy over here is wearing the swastika.
I strongly suspect most of the Nazi symbolism in Ukraine is just Ukrainian nationalism and a certain amount of ethnic pride. I don't find either of those two meanings particularly offensive, nor the ancestral meaning of the symbol as one of protection.
This guy needs to die, not because of a bracelet, but because he's leading tens of thousands of soldiers to foolish and unnecessary deaths in order to defend the corrupt, totalitarian, and genocidal Zelensky regime. Genocidal? Yes. That's the term we use for governments which engage in the ethnic cleansing of ethnic minorities (in this case ethnic Russians) within their borders.
Symbols have multiple meanings.
That cross was (and still is) a sign of protection. If you go to Buddhist temples in SE Asia, you'll see it everywhere. It's a very old symbol.
Of course, we also know that it was co-opted by the Nazis and became a symbol of fascism and white supremacy.
But for Ukraine, it may represent a third thing, Ukrainian nationalism. After Stalin's depraved efforts to more equitably distribute Ukrainian farmland in 1936-37 which resulted in 3-4 million dead or missing Ukrainian farmers, there was significant and quite understandable resentment in the province against the USSR and the communist party. Starving the country to death and either torturing or killing millions because you can't stand the idea of Ukrainians keeping their ancestral farm land will generate some animosity. So when the Wehrmacht rolled in in 1941, the Ukrainians saw them as liberators. For Ukrainian nationalists, the fascists were the solution to the communists, and they happily helped the Germans kill Red Army soldiers. I strongly suspect this is why homeboy over here is wearing the swastika.
I strongly suspect most of the Nazi symbolism in Ukraine is just Ukrainian nationalism and a certain amount of ethnic pride. I don't find either of those two meanings particularly offensive, nor the ancestral meaning of the symbol as one of protection.
This guy needs to die, not because of a bracelet, but because he's leading tens of thousands of soldiers to foolish and unnecessary deaths in order to defend the corrupt, totalitarian, and genocidal Zelensky regime. Genocidal? Yes. That's the term we use for governments which engage in the ethnic cleansing of ethnic minorities (in this case ethnic Russians) within their borders.
It’s also on the official flag of Finland’s Air Force Academy.