Children at a HOSPICE are made to stand in the snow in the shape of a Z to show support for Putin

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Children at a hospice were made to stand outside in the snow in the shape of the letter ‘Z’ to show support for Vladimir Putin’s invasion in the Ukraine.

Vladimir Vavilov, the chairman of a cancer charity that runs a hospice for unwell children, organised the shocking pro-war stunt in the city of Kazan, in the Tatarstan region, this weekend.

The insignia, which is Latin script, has become a symbol of the invasion after being seen on Russian tanks and military vehicles coming into Ukraine.

Letter ‘Z’ merchandise has been sold by Russia Today, the Kremlin-funded TV channel, while Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak is being investigated after he used white injury tape to create a ‘Z’ letter on his leotard.

In yet another propaganda stunt, Mr Vavilov told children at the hospice and their mothers to stand in the snow to form a giant letter ‘Z’, according to The Telegraph.

Vladimir Vavilov, the chairman of a cancer charity that runs a hospice for unwell children in the city of Kazan, organised a pro-war stunt which saw patients line up in the shape of a letter 'Z'

Vladimir Vavilov, the chairman of a cancer charity that runs a hospice for unwell children in the city of Kazan, organised a pro-war stunt which saw patients line up in the shape of a letter ‘Z’

The insignia, which is Latin script, has become a symbol of the invasion after being seen on Russian tanks and military vehicles coming into Ukraine

The insignia, which is Latin script, has become a symbol of the invasion after being seen on Russian tanks and military vehicles coming into Ukraine 

Mr Vavilov said as they stood in the shape of the letter ‘Z’, patients held leaflets with the flags of Russia, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Russian republic Tatarstan as they held their other hand in a fist.

He added: ‘Our patients and entire team took part in it, about 60 people in total.’

The stunt, which was posted on the hospice’s website, was photographed using a drone.

The LPR and the DPR became self-proclaimed breakaway states located in Ukraine that Putin has recognised as independent states.

Ukraine regards both the DPR and LPR as terrorist organisations due to their loyalty to Russia. The Republics are located in the historical Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine.

The letter ‘Z’ has rose to prominence across the past month as a pro-war and pro-Putin symbol in Russia.

Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak is being investigated after he used white injury tape to create a 'Z' letter on his leotard for the podium picture

Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak is being investigated after he used white injury tape to create a ‘Z’ letter on his leotard for the podium picture

Russian MP Maria Butina (second left), who was convicted in in the US in 2018 for acting as a foreign agent, posted a picture of her and colleagues in 'Z' t-shirts

Russian MP Maria Butina (second left), who was convicted in in the US in 2018 for acting as a foreign agent, posted a picture of her and colleagues in ‘Z’ t-shirts 

Russian forces have used the letter Z as an identifying symbol on their vehicles in Ukraine following Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor. 

Pro-Putin politicians, activists, and influencers have been spotted wearing clothes and badges with the letter ‘Z’ on to show their support for the invasion of Ukraine. 

Gymnast Ivan Kuliak, 20, will be probed by the International Gymnastics Federation for his ‘shocking behaviour’ in displaying a symbol of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during an event.

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Kuliak finished third in the parallel bars final at the Apparatus World Cup in Doha over the weekend and displayed the letter ‘Z’ on the front of his outfit as he stood on the podium next to Ukrainian rival Illia Kovtun, who won the gold.

‘The International Gymnastics Federation confirms that it will ask the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation to open disciplinary proceedings against … Kuliak following his shocking behaviour at the Apparatus World Cup,’ the FIG said in a statement.

Elsewhere, ‘Z’ merchandise is being sold by Russia Today, the Kremlin-funded TV channel.

Proceeds from the sales are supposedly going towards a charity which supports ‘children of war’. T-shirts which are unisex are on sale for 1,190 roubles (£8).

Russian MP Maria Butina, who was convicted in in the US in 2018 for acting as a foreign agent, posted a picture of her and colleagues in ‘Z’ t-shirts. 

The photograph was captioned: ‘The team in support of our army and president! Let’s get to work guys!’ 

Politician Mikhail Delyagin wore a badge in a meeting of the state duma or parliament emblazoned with a ‘Z’.

In the meeting, the government approved Draconian new laws.

Mr Delyagin said in a statement: ‘Now we are at war. Yes we have a special operation in Ukraine, but we have a war with the West.’ 

Putin’s propaganda machine also created a pro-Kremlin short cartoon telling the reason Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

The three-minute video shows children wearing t-shirts representing Ukraine, Germany, Russia and the US before going on to explain the War in Donbas. 

The pro-Kremlin propaganda says: ‘Ukraine began to oppress the Russian population so these two oblasts wanted to separate and become a part of Russia – but Ukraine disagreed and began to go to war with those territories’.

It says the reason Putin went to war was because ‘Russia tried to stop the killing of people and resolve the issue peacefully’.

Meanwhile, the cartoon added ‘The West doesn’t listen because Ukraine is telling everyone that Russia wants to kill people. Our country always stands for peace and open conversation around any conflict’. 

One shocked viewer couldn’t believe they were showing the ‘historically inaccurate’ cartoon to children and slammed the ‘Russian narrative’.

On many occasions, Putin has accused Ukraine of being taken over by extremists after its pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych, was removed from office in the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. 

In the weeks leading up to the Russian invasion, Putin repeated his unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine wanted to exterminate Russian speakers in the east of the country.

It comes as the invasion of Ukraine enters its twelfth day as cities were hit by fresh bombardments, with the war-torn country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky vowing that ‘God will not forgive’ and Ukraine ‘will not forget’ the slaughter of civilians by Russian, saying a ‘day of judgement’ is coming for them.

Zelensky, in a late-night address to his countrymen on the Orthodox Christian holiday of ‘Forgiveness Sunday’, recalled how a family of four were among eight civilians killed by Russian mortars while trying to flee the city of Irpin – near Kyiv – earlier in the day. ‘We will not forgive. We will not forget,’ he told listeners.   

‘We cannot forgive the hundreds upon hundreds of victims. Nor the thousands upon thousands who have suffered,’ he added. ‘God will not forgive. Not today. Not tomorrow. Never.’

Russian forces are continuing to pound Mariupol, in the south, Kharkiv, in the east, Chernihiv, in the north, and Mykolaiv, in the south, with artillery - but have made little or no gains in territory in recent days. Forces continue to work to surround the capital Kyiv, though progress has been slow. Attacks on civilian areas on the outskirts have increased

Russian forces are continuing to pound Mariupol, in the south, Kharkiv, in the east, Chernihiv, in the north, and Mykolaiv, in the south, with artillery – but have made little or no gains in territory in recent days. Forces continue to work to surround the capital Kyiv, though progress has been slow. Attacks on civilian areas on the outskirts have increased

After more than a week in stalled positions, Russian forces have made small gains in their attempt to surround and assault Kyiv - with Ukraine saying enough firepower has now been amassed for the mission

After more than a week in stalled positions, Russian forces have made small gains in their attempt to surround and assault Kyiv – with Ukraine saying enough firepower has now been amassed for the mission

People cross an improvised path under a destroyed bridge while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine

People cross an improvised path under a destroyed bridge while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers carry a wounded woman out of the city of Irpin, to the west of Kyiv, amid heavy Russian attacks

Ukrainian soldiers carry a wounded woman out of the city of Irpin, to the west of Kyiv, amid heavy Russian attacks

Rescuers dismantle the rubble of a destroyed school after Russian troops shelled the city of Chernihiv, to the north of the capital Kyiv, on Monday morning

Rescuers dismantle the rubble of a destroyed school after Russian troops shelled the city of Chernihiv, to the north of the capital Kyiv, on Monday morning

He spoke as Russia claimed it is opening new ‘humanitarian corridors’ out of surrounded cities including Mariupol, Kharkiv, Sumy and Kyiv starting at 7am UK time today in order to allow civilians to evacuate – though few expect Putin’s men to observe the temporary truce after two similar corridors failed at the weekend. 

Red Cross volunteers working in the heavily besieged city of Mariupol said their workers had attempted to use one of the ‘corridors’ out of Mariupol on Sunday, only to find land mines had been laid across it. 

‘Instead of humanitarian corridors, they can only make bloody ones,’ Zelensky said, as Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko added: ‘There can be no ‘green corridors’ because only the sick brain of the Russians decides when to start shooting and at whom.’

Shortly after they spoke, columns of smoke were seen rising over the city of Mykolaiv, on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, as Russian forces resumed shelling. 

The exact number of civilian casualties is unclear, though is estimated by Ukraine to be in the thousands as residential areas of major cities are indiscriminately bombed using thermobaric and cluster munitions amid evidence of ‘hit squads’ targeting civilian vehicles. The UN estimates that 1.5million people have fled the fighting. 

Ukraine claims to be inflicting heavy losses on the invading Russians, with the ministry of defence claiming to have taken out more than 11,000 troops, some 290 tanks, 1,000 armoured personnel carriers, 46 planes, 68 helicopters and 117 artillery pieces as-of Monday morning. 

None of those figures has been independently verified. Russia has acknowledged taking losses, but gave a figure of 500 deaths last week and has not updated it since.

There were unconfirmed reports early Monday of heavy Russian losses around the captured city of Kherson overnight – with dozens of helicopters taken out alongside artillery columns – but these have also not been verified. 

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