In the shadow of combat granny

British newspaper front pages and broadcasters compete in a game of "don't mention the neo-Nazis..."

“A granny with a gun…” When Orla Guerin intones those words in a report from Ukraine, you’re not meant to laugh. They’re the serious words of a serious reporter and not a Chris Morris creation unglued from fiction and flung into reality. When The Times and Daily Telegraph put a photo of the same woman, 79-year-old Valentyna Konstantynovska, with an AK-47 in her hands on their front pages, you’re supposed to take it at face value.

In the photos, Konstantynovska’s instructors are largely cropped out — just a single arm entering the frame — but Guerin interviews one and his comrades are seen in that background with their insignia clearly visible. They’re from the Azov Regiment, which The Times and Daily Telegraph accurately described as “neo-Nazi” in headlines published in 2014 before the group was fully integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard.

Orla Guerin @OrlaGuerin

A nation in peril, almost encircled by #Russian troops - we report from the strategic port city of Mariupol in #Ukraine where some are preparing for the worst. With thanks to the team @goktay @wburema @n_sosnytska

“Civilians lining up for a few hours military training with the National Guard,” is how Guerin describes it in her report. She — in common with ITV, Sky and NBC News — makes no mention of the Azov Regiment. All of them focus on the “granny with a gun”. No need to complicate things for the viewer with details like who invited you to this training and who’s delivering it.

There’s a granny, she has a gun and the patriotic desire to defend her country; that’s all you need to know.

A small boy on The Independent’s front page being shown how to remove ammunition from a clip is echoed by another child in Guerin’s report doing the same thing. The image is arresting so there’s no reason to ask any further questions. Images of children and adults with woodcuts shaped like assault rifles are intended to be consumed as entirely serious.

These are photo opportunities staged for the benefit of the media and reported as organic events; trailers for a war that may or may not come. Konstantynovska is catnip for editors who privilege the simplicity of symbols and the neatness of a narrative over the mess of reality.

As recently as three weeks ago, The Times’ more explicitly tabloid sibling The Sun called the Azov Regiment a “neo-Nazi militia” in a headline (Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi militia preparing to ‘fight to the death’ in Russia war with guerrilla forces & ‘Mad Max’ tanks) but its involvement in the training session wasn’t deemed worthy of a mention today.

It’s possible to hold all of the following positions at once: Vladimir Putin is bad, Russian nationalism is bad, Ukrainian nationalism is bad, Nazis (neo or classic) are bad, and the presentation of propaganda without context is bad. That may sound a little Play School but it seems too complicated a combination for a lot of people: Either you get on board with the narrative or you’re Putin’s pal.

Three words from The Sun’s political editor Harry Cole, tweeted with the picture of Konstantynovska, sum up the British media’s general attitude: “What a pic.” The image is instant iconography; the past and present embodied in a single defiant woman, an easy short-hand for a nation ready to throw its entire being into defending itself against a foreign invader.

Richard Chambers @newschambers

The photo of the Ukrainian granny practicing with the AK47 has gone viral around the world - including on front pages. What hasn't gone viral is the fact that the group training her were the Azov battalion.

euronews.comUkraine far-right group offers training to civiliansMembers of Ukraine’s far right movement Azov held military training for Mariupol residents on Sunday to teach them self-defence in case of an attack from Russia.

The context and the complexity don’t matter when the picture says something so simple and visceral. The drumbeat of war is so loud that the details are too inconvenient to bother with. Complex history and competing narratives cannot stand up to “a granny with a gun”.

“A granny with a gun.” Serious news is not reported seriously. Serious questions go unasked and unanswered. The BBC’s Reality Check team writes about Russian disinformation and distortion — including references to neo-Nazis in Ukraine — but the corporation’s own reporters leave out vital context.

It’s as though there has to be a bad guy and some good guys and, having fitted Putin for the one available black stetson, bringing a bunch of neo-Nazis into the story is just too complicated. Much easier to accept the invite to film the weapons training session, stick the photo of combat granny on the front page, and ignore those familiar-looking insignia for now.

Don’t for a moment question pictures of pensioners and toddlers being put through their paces for war. And definitely don’t ask that instructor if you can have a quick look at his tattoos.

No doubt the time will come for the Azov Regiment to be scary again, but for now, you see, they’re our neo-Nazis. And they’ve given us a beautiful and unquestionable gift: A granny with a gun.