Has anyone explained why there were American flags flying on Russian tanks yesterday?

[PittBlue]

I saw pictures and it made me want to vomit.

[ret5hd]

1. because putin said he was gonna...

and trump said “yes sir”.

[FBaggins]

2. A guess

Back when nations would frequently capture each other's ships... the practice was to fly your flag above the original nation's flag to show that it had surrendered and/or been captured.

The "russian" tank was actually a captured US M113

[Kaleva]

3. It was mentioned in another thread that it may have been photoshopped or AI

[Hekate]

4. I just figured they were trolling the American people, and it might be an AI creation

[bluedigger]

5. The Office of Explaining Russian Propaganda is currently unstaffed.

[TommyT139]

6. Russia posted it after Friday's love fest

...probably to troll -- but also to contradict any impression that they wanted peace with Ukraine. It came out from an official Russian account.

https://www.politico.eu/article/viral-video-russia-vehicle-wave-us-flag-attack-ukraine-fury-kyiv/

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-armor-captured-ukraine-seen-with-russian-american-flags-video-2025-8?op=1

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/19/ukraine-tank-russia-us/

[bottomofthehill]

7. Psyops.