There has been a growing trend across many parts of Ukraine, of ordinary folks painting a white Z on a foe's vehicle, to settle a debt, or to right a perceived wrong.
But now this new fad of 'revenge Z hits' might be going a bit too far, say some potential beaters.
"It's hard to tell anymore," said an anonymous burly man ordering coffee at a pile of wooden crates. "Usually, I see Z on car, and I am like, OK, let's go see if we can kick some Russian ass," he tells us.
But now, says the man, "It's getting harder to tell if it's really a Russian jackass, trying to steal our land... or maybe it's just a neighborly grudge that I should stay out of, you know? I don't wanna kick some guy's ass in the middle of the street, just because he got caught with another woman, right?'
Indeed, other burly men and would-be Z beaters, who we met at the next piles of wood pallets, said they had grown weary of kicking people's asses with a Z painted on their cars, too.
"I knew right away something was fishy," tells an even burlier man sitting on his motorcycle. "I swerved up around this one car, ready to jump at this Russian asshole, but it was an old woman in her mid-ninties at the wheel..."
The proud Ukrainian man knew right away it was probably an argument with her husband, "Or a life insurance jobbie," he supposed.
Instead of jumping through the window at the old lady, he got her to pull over and helped her smear dirt all over the door panels, so she could get home safely. "She looked like she knew exactly who had Z'ed her, too," he explained.
It wasn't hard to find other folks who'd had a Z unknowingly painted on their cars too. Mostly men, unsurprisingly.
"I did girlfriend's sister..." one man confessed at our next stop. "Worth it. But I got my ass kicked by three guys next morning. Big Z on back of van. Oops, I no see. Probably, I deserve it...'
Another man was sure he got Z'ed by a neighbor who wanted his lawnmower back. "I think he Z'ed me at the grocery store?" told the man, which he claimed added to the harshness of his public flogging. "I even knew some of the beaters," the man explained.
Now, it's become such a prevalent and effective way of solving minor squabbles, many of the beaters are left wondering; not wanting to pummel a neighbor for what seems to amount to common infractions, usually involving a wife or girlfriend, we came to find out.
'Yes, usually it's man and wife stuff,' tells the next coffee stand owner, who has seen it all. '8 times out of 10, it's the wife trying to get her cheating husband a beating,' he tells with a chuckle.
"Check your cars before you leave the house!" warns yet another man, as he buckled up, chasing off after a small yellow Fiat with a suspicious marking on its trunk. "Shit, I think that's my cousin?' he yells back at us. 'I gotta warn him!
"Vlad, you've been Z'ed!"
While non us want to live in a war zone, or drive a little yellow fiat from the '80's, we wish Ukraine people peace very soon. Yet, some folks in the U.S. are left feeling slightly jealous at the ease of giving your wandering-eyed boyfriend or husband a smack down outside his other woman's apartment.
