Ukraine war: What do we know about the Russian pro-war Z symbol?

In a matter of days, the Z symbol has become a common sight on Russian military vehicles, displayed on pro-Russia social media accounts, plastered on private cars and trucks, printed on t-shirts and hoodies, and even stuck on the leotard of a medal-winning young Russian gymnast.

Z has become the dominant symbol to show support for President Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a phenomenon that came to prominence in a very short space of time.

It even appears on some official documents, with Russian media reporting that the head of Kemerovo Oblast has decided to change the official spelling of the Kuzbass region to incorporate the Z, and Roskomnadzor, the Russian media watchdog, has capitalised the "Z" in its name on Telegram.

Written in the Latin alphabet rather than Cyrillic, experts aren't quite sure of its exact meaning - and it's likely the people using the Z symbol also don't know for sure, even if they do understand implicitly what it stands for.

"For now, it's less clear what it is than how it is being used," said Donnacha Ó Beacháin, a professor at Dublin City University who specialises in post-Soviet politics.

"Nobody knows for sure what it means although there are various theories. Some think of Z as Za pobedy (for victory) while others think it might be Zapad (West). All the stranger because the letter Z doesn’t exist in the Russian alphabet."

While many Russian military vehicles heading west during the invasion of Ukraine did have Z painted on them -- so that theory would match up -- other military assets had different letters like V and O as well.

One popular theory on Russian websites says the letters Z, V, and O stand for "Volodymyr Oleksandrovich Zelenskyy".

Russia's defence ministry has confused things