Dan Drakenholt from Trelleborg has had a Ukrainian flag hanging from his flagpole ever since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
When it blew up one day after bad weather, he first thought of buying a new one, but changed his mind when he realized that it was more reasonable to send the money down to Ukraine instead.
And then he had an idea.
– I had just read about a Ukrainian soldier who had been shot and started bleeding profusely. Lacking anything else, he used a Ukrainian flag to stop the bleeding, and it was like a new flag, he says.
Dan then chose to keep the torn flag and spray it with red paint before it went up again.
– It gives a rather violent impression, and if you follow the war in the slightest, you understand the seriousness of it. We’ve had much more positive reactions to it after we painted it.
Asked which side he was on
But on Thursday last week he received an unexpected visit from two men from the Armed Forces, which The Express was the first to report on.
The men wanted to know what he wanted to convey with the flag – and asked if he was “pro-Ukraine” or “pro-Russia”.
Questions captured by Dan’s surveillance camera.
– It has nothing to do with a democracy, he says about the questions.
– They may wonder, but if you look at the flag, I think it’s an incredibly stupid question. If I were pro-Russian I would probably have a Russian flag. And at the same time, I feel that the point of living in a democracy is that you can think what you want and that the state has no right to ask questions that have nothing to do with them.
– You can say that I was offended and not only me but all people who live in a democracy can be offended that something like this can happen at all.
TV4 Nyheterna has sought the Armed Forces, which refers to the interview that was done with Expressen, where they confirm that the visit took place.
They further say that it has not been about any opinion control.