'Defending the state! Defending independence!' State Bureau of Investigation billboard, Kropyvnytskyi

Billboard in Kropyvnytskyi on a blue and yellow ground: a smiling girl leans against a masked figure in helmet with a night-vision mount and body armour, beside the logo of the State Bureau of Investigation and the words 'Defending the state! Defending independence!' The tells are the transfer of soldier-protector imagery to a civilian investigative body, and virtue terms ('state', 'independence') stated without a claim to test.

Date: September 20, 2023
Period: Contemporary
Made by: State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine (name and logo printed on the billboard)
Region: Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Country: Ukraine
Medium: Signs and banners
Issuer type: State
Regime: Zelensky Government
Leader: Volodymyr Zelensky
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Reassure
Themes: War and the military, Security and surveillance
Event: Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Techniques: Transfer Glittering generalities
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Wikimedia Commons, retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights: CC0 (photograph by Valerygtyuhgujj, per Wikimedia Commons)
Valerygtyuhgujj, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Text on the object

Original (Ukrainian) · read from the image, not independently checked

ДЕРЖАВНЕ БЮРО
РОЗСЛІДУВАНЬ

НА ЗАХИСТІ ДЕРЖАВИ!
НА ЗАХИСТІ НЕЗАЛЕЖНОСТІ!

[small QR code, lower left]

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

STATE BUREAU
OF INVESTIGATION

IN DEFENCE OF THE STATE!
IN DEFENCE OF INDEPENDENCE!

[small QR code, lower left]

The QR code is not decoded. The photograph shows the billboard from a distance and at an angle; the slogan lines are legible at full size.

'Defending the state! Defending independence!' State Bureau of Investigation billboard, Kropyvnytskyi

Text on the object

Using the same techniques