From the video, in which the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, presents awards to people’s militia fighters, a soldier with a Nazi patch on his sleeve was cut out. Mediazone drew attention to this .

A video of the awarding of those who “particularly distinguished themselves” in the “operation to liberate Donbass” was published on  the website of the head of the DPR and in his Telegram channel on April 3. On the sleeve of one of the soldiers – the commander of the motorized rifle battalion “Somalia”, senior lieutenant Roman Vorobyov – journalists noticed a patch in the form of a slightly modified patch of the SS division “Dead Head” (“Totenkopf”).

This symbol in Russia is  classified  as Nazi paraphernalia, the demonstration of it or its versions entails an administrative penalty under  Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation .

The first version of the video lasting 2 minutes 21 seconds was deleted, instead a video appeared on Pushilin’s website and in his Telegram channel , cut down to 2 minutes 17 seconds. Pushilin and his press service did not comment on the replacement. At the same time, in the new version of the video, the stripes on Vorobyov’s sleeve still flicker at about 1 minute 11 seconds.

The original video is still available on the website of the public movement “Donetsk Republic”. Vorobyov with a Nazi patch on his sleeve appears at about 32 seconds.

(C)MEDUZA 2022