Russia is upset at Ukraine’s new military intelligence logo, which features an owl with a sword pointing directly at Russia on a map.
Russia’s vice prime minister called the logo “idiotic” and said it reminded him of Nazi propaganda in the 1930’s. The logo is doubly offensive to Russia, because the owl is a creature which hunts bats. The bat is the official logo of Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU.
“Russian media became very excited about the photo of Ukraine’s President presenting a new chief of the Defense Intelligence. They saw there the emblem where an owl ‘piercing Russia with a sword.’ Let us tell them: an owl in the wild eats bats, and a bat is a symbol of the Russian military intelligence,” Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Tymchuk said in a Facebook response to Russian criticism.
Russia and Ukraine remain in a contentious proxy war in Eastern Ukraine. Russia continues to support Ukrainian separatist militias, often with non-uniformed Russian troops. Russia also illegally annexed Ukrainian Crimea in 2014, after a sham referendum supporting annexation passed.
Leaked emails of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top aide reveal an extensive Russian plot to further destabilize Ukraine. Twenty-two pages of leaked emails show Vladislav Surkov’s proposal to back nationalist and separatist politicians in Eastern Ukraine, while trying to trigger new elections in the Ukrainian parliament. The proposals reveal a concerted effort by Russia to undermine Ukraine’s government.
The emails reveal “the Kremlin had a guiding hand in orchestrating and funding the supposedly local and independent government,” D.C.-based think tank the Atlantic Council noted on Medium after the emails release.
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