Sergiy, the manager of the building I live in, walks around in a T-shirt with “Z” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(military_symbol)) on it never taking it off, even though it’s already December. Sometimes I try to imagine how people make such purchases. You walk in the store and among T-shirts with kittens, tigers, “Armani”, “KiS”, “Tsoi is alive” you find, try on, and choose specifically this one. With “Z” letter. I stay away from Sergiy specifically because of the way he dresses.
Sergiy’s T-shirt is getting old and worn out, “Z” letter fades and chips away, stikers on neighbors’ cars peel off and bleach. But during the first days of the war, when this junk was just spreading around the streets, an interesting thing happened. There was a February gloom around, rain, depression. I parked near the bakery and was quickly carrying a box full of forbidden high-calorie pastry to my car, trying not to get soaked in the rain. I noticed a guy without an umbrella, who was trying to get something off the rear window of his car. I looked more carefully and noticed a “Z” sticker.
I asked: “Do you need any help?”
“No, thanks, I can manage,” he said.
“How did it happen?”
“Well, I was driving and wondering what is that thing on my rear window blocking my view? I exited the car and saw this crap there. Probably someone put it up during the night.”
One of my pastries I shoved into my mouth right there, in the parking lot.
Not all “Z” stickers are the same. There are simple white “Z”s on the black background, they appeared overnight on all public transport, ambulances, cars of police and state employees. These “Z”s are enslaved, project no inspiration or joy. There are also showy “Z”s, made from Georgian ribbons, with flowers, Soviet stars, tanks, flags of SSSR and Russia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_imagery_during_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War). Stickers with this kind of “Z”s were picked by their owners, bought and carefully attached. They reflect opinions and beliefs of people who put them up. But the scariest ones are not stickers, but “Z”s made with the sticky tape, on the rear window or hood of the car. Those can be found on military vehicles or trophy cars, driven by murderers who transport the people they’ve murdered. I stay away from those cars.
