RED ARMY
A RUSSIAN ‘Z’ tank has been spotted displaying the flag of the former Soviet Union amid claims Vladimir Putin wants to “rebuild the USSR”.
The footage is thought to have been in southern Ukraine, as Russian forces continue to try to take over the country.
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The hammer and sickle flag was ditched following the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR), which had been dominated by Russia, in 1991.
The red flag was seen as a symbol of Russian oppression by many people in the satellite countries of the Soviet Union, which included Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Baltic States.
It is thought Putin is intent on empire building and effectively create a new “Soviet Union”.
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Ukrainian intelligence warned Russia wants "to neutralise western influence and create a trading space" - in effect a return to the USSR.
With tanks and troops rolling into Kazakhstan, it brings back echoes of the days behind the Iron Curtain.
Putin has tried to justify his decision to invade Ukraine by claiming he was striving or "the demilitarisation and denazification of" Kyiv.
The bizarre claim was made even though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish and lost three family members in the Holocaust.
🔵 Read our Russia - Ukraine live blog for the very latest updates
Yesterday shocking footage showed a Russian tank crushing a car as it drove over it and then reversed over it again, on the outskirts of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
The video - understood to have been taken in the Obolon district, five miles from the city centre - shows the armoured vehicle moving erratically through the streets of Kyiv.
It comes as:
- Boris Johnson blasted Putin as a 'bloodstained aggressor' as he pledged to go after Vlad's dirty cash
- Bloodied civilians have been left fleeing for their lives across a devastated Ukraine
- Vladimir Putin warned of 'untold consequences' if the West challenged his invasion of Ukraine
- Russian troops attacked the nuclear disaster zone of Chernobyl as it lies on the most direct route to Kyiv
- It was warned Putin's invasion of Ukraine could spark a nuclear war if he goes too far and attacks Nato
- St Petersburg is set to stripped of the Champions League final as Russia becomes an international pariah
- Fears are growing over the price of petrol and gas as the markets quake in the aftermath of the invasion
The lone tank is believed to be a Strela-10, an anti-aircraft vehicle used by both Russia and Ukraine.
Miraculously, the elderly man behind the wheel appears to have survived the ordeal after a passersby attempted to free him using an axe.
The news comes as Russian troops were spotted raising their flag in Ukraine as the second wave of Vladimir Putin's invasion.
Tanks, trucks, howitzers and other armoured vehicles - some marked with the distinctive "Z" - have been seen rolling in from Crimea.
Other vehicles crossed the border from Belarus, with these marked with an "O".
The "Z" symbol became a distinctive image of invasion, as it's believed to be an invasion organisation marking or to stop friendly fire.
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And atop a power plant in Kharkiv, southern Ukraine, a group of soldiers raised the distinctive red, white and blue striped flag of Russia.
Fighting is raging through the country as Ukraine attempts to mount a resistance to the assault.
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