Political Geography xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Political Geography
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/polgeo

Viewpoint

Solidarity, the national flag, and embodied differences

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, people around South and West Kurdistan, also known as Rojava (Burç, 2022; Jasim,
the world have raised their voices against the war. In protests against the 2022). Although South Kurdistan is not an independent state but a
war in the West, the Ukrainian national flag has taken on special sig­ regional government, and Rojava has not yet been formally recognized
nificance. Both on- and offline, the blue-yellow color combination as an autonomous administration, the Kurdish national flag is seen far
populates different spaces. To express solidarity with people in Ukraine, less, if at all, in (digital) public spaces as a sign of solidarity with people
Ukrainian flag emojis are posted across social media; during peace under attack. As Burç (2022) observes, “silently, once again, it is
demonstrations, the Ukrainian national flag is painted on cheeks and accepted that Turkey – a member of NATO – attacks Kurds and thus
wrapped around shoulders; in everyday life, blue-yellow flags flutter on violates international law."
car windows and in front of private houses as reminders of the ongoing The Ukrainian flag, in contrast, has recently been described by a
war; and on public memorial sites, people place the Ukrainian national German journalist as “the freedom flag of the world” (Julke, 2022). In
flag as they hope for Ukraine’s victory. In March 2022, unknown pro­ addition to representing an independent Ukraine, the Ukrainian national
testers draped blue-yellow flags on two Soviet World War tanks, which flag has turned into a globally circulating symbol of democracy,
are part of the Soviet memorial at Tiergarten in Berlin commemorating freedom, and peace – the promise of the Western liberal order. German
the Soviet victory in World War II and the Soviet soldiers who died in it Chancellor Olaf Scholz explained that Ukrainians are fighting “on the
(Braungart, 2022) (Fig. 1). The police removed the flags and began in­ right side of history” (The Federal Government, 2022). Similarly, Can­
vestigations regarding damage to property, while the Russian Embassy ada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared, they are “not just fighting
demanded that the German Foreign Office punish the “perpetrators." for Ukraine, they are fighting for the values that underpin so many of our
On the one hand, covering the memorial’s Soviet tanks with large free and democratic societies” (Chase, 2022).
Ukrainian flags signals “resistance to the Russian imperial complex” Who, however, is included in Scholz’s ‘right side’ of Trudeau’s ‘our’?
(Dubrova, 2022). On the other hand, covering the tank with the Despite its importance as an international symbol of peace, the Ukrai­
Ukrainian flag becomes a symbol of peace, rendering the lethal war nian flag remains the manifestation of a national project that represents
technology under its fabric invisible. only a certain kind of population. Considering this, we ask: With whom
The use of the blue-yellow flag symbol recognizes and legitimizes do we express solidarity when we wave the flag, whose suffering re­
Ukraine’s nationhood and takes the side of the attacked in this war. mains invisible, and who is excluded by the act of calling on a symbol of
Precisely because Russia’s deadly invasion challenges the independence the Ukrainian nation?
of the Ukrainian (nation-)state, adherence to the Ukrainian national flag We1 ask these questions as feminist political geographers who have
seems central to defending Ukraine’s national community. long thought about the affective capacities of national symbols such as
However, apart from the case of Ukraine, hoisting another national flags to produce inclusions and exclusions in a national community
flag for months as a sign of solidarity with people affected by another (Militz, 2020; Militz & Schurr, 2016), and who have grown up in
country’s aggression is rare, as German newspapers have observed post-World War II Germany, where the use of the German national flag
(Bruhn, 2022; Hirsch, 2022). The Russian war in Ukraine is not the only remains a difficult political issue. We offer this intervention to think
military invasion currently taking place. To name another example, about the geopolitical power of flags and their affective agency to
simultaneously with Russia’s bombing of Ukraine, Turkey is bombing reproduce injustices.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (E. Militz), [email protected] (L. Ruppert), [email protected] (C. Schurr).
1
The authors contributed in the listed order.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102738
Received 22 July 2022; Received in revised form 5 August 2022; Accepted 11 August 2022
0962-6298/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: Elisabeth Militz, Political Geography, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102738
E. Militz et al. Political Geography xxx (xxxx) xxx

1. Embodied differences and the national flag government” (Mayerchyk & Plakhotnik, 2015). While Black Ukrainians
and Africans in Ukraine had been “celebrated and embraced as model
In political geography, the national flag is discussed as a key symbol Ukrainians” (Bilaniuk, 2016) in general public discourse, when the war
that reproduces the nation as a “collective of belonging” (Christian et al., began, Ukrainian security officials restricted them from boarding trains
2016; Paasi, 2016; Smith, 2020, p. 34). The national flag transforms the and buses to escape (Njai et al., 2022). In addition, Romani people in
abstract idea of the nation into something tangible. Ukraine, as in other European countries, are exposed to systemic
On occasions celebrating the nation, such as during memorial days, discrimination, criminalization and racism and experience state aban­
international sporting events, street protests or weddings (Benwell et al., donment and societal neglect, especially in the context of the Russian
2019; Closs Stephens, 2016; Militz, 2020), the “quotidian affirmation of annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas ( Anti-Discrimination
the national [takes place] through momentary encounters of bodies and Centre Memorial, 2015). Romani people have not only experienced
objects” (Militz & Schurr, 2016, p. 56) such as the flag. In the context of racism when fleeing Ukraine (Talewicz-Kwiatkowska, 2022): many have
such events, encounters with the national flag can evoke feelings of been prevented from leaving the areas under attack because they lack
unity, pride, and hope for many people. necessary identity documents (Galer, 2022). Further, if the passports of
Yet, these joyful experiences stand in stark contrast to experiences of trans women and non-binary Ukrainians do not identify them as women,
exploitation, pain, and despair belonging to those “excluded from the they are prohibited from leaving the country because citizens listed as
heaven of national belonging” (Ahmed, 2014; Sharma, 2020, p. 4). men were forced to stay soon after the Russian invasion took place
People representing marginalized communities may be discouraged (Niewendick, 2022). The imagined community of the blue-yellow flag
from associating with the national flag because their bodies are seen as continues to exclude marginalized people, even though their bodies are
threats to the national project (Gökarıksel & Secor, 2015). Similarly, just as threatened by bombs, fear, insecurity, and loss. Hoisting the
people may feel threatened by national flags that deny life to their Ukrainian flag in the West thus fails to express solidarity with these
communities (Orey et al., 2021). The flag as a symbol thereby not only multiply marginalized communities.
represents the nation, but also its entanglements with “militarism, […]
heteropatriarchy and violence” (Mayerchyk & Plakhotnik, 2021, p. 2. Solidarity beyond the national flag
130).
Flying the Ukrainian national flag in Western Europe and North Within a few months, the Ukrainian flag – exclusions left aside –
America thus does not only signify peace, freedom, and democracy. The became a symbol of the Western liberal order, even though “Ukraine
Ukrainian flag, like other national flags, stands for an “imagined com­ does not hold a stable […] place in […] Western imaginaries” (Vorbrugg
munity” (Anderson, 1991), which aligns a certain group of people & Bluwstein, 2022). The ubiquity of the Ukrainian national flag in
within a certain national project, and which excludes those who do not (digital) public spaces normalizes and perpetuates nationalist ideolo­
fit these nationalized bodies of the imagined Ukrainian nation. Mayer­ gies. It also fails to build solidarity with the people who are both
chyk and Plakhotnik (2015) observe that since the beginning of the war marginalized in society and affected by the war.
in Donbas, Ukraine’s political right has accused the restive region’s Given the exclusions that a national symbol like the flag produces,
population of lacking national consciousness. Following this rhetoric, acting in solidarity rather than rallying around national symbols seems
people in Donbas are seen as too attached to and unliberated from the more effective. Instead of flying national flags, means of improving the
Soviet past and are thus considered “improper Ukrainians” (Mayerchyk situation of the people affected by the war could include volunteering in
& Plakhotnik, 2015). This stigma, in return, justifies the Donbas pop­ and regularly donating to grassroots initiatives both in Ukraine and in
ulation’s unworthiness of national protection and the state’s prioriti­ the West that work with undocumented people, poor people, Romani
zation of defending its territory rather than preserving the lives of people, Black people, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities and
people directly affected by the war. For example, “no evacuation of the chronic illness, elderly people, and children. To offer just two examples,
civilian population from the war zone was organized by the on the streets of major Ukrainian cities such as Kharkiv and Odesa, the

Fig. 1. Blue-yellow flags covering a tank at the Soviet Memorial at Tiergarten in Berlin, March 2022 (source: KEYSTONE/PICTURE ALLIANCE/Kay Nietfeld). (For
interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

2
E. Militz et al. Political Geography xxx (xxxx) xxx

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interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
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