Ukrop ( Russian: укроп, pronounced [ʊˈkrop]; literally " dill") is a Russian-language ethnic slur for Ukrainians. The term is a reference to the dill plant and bears a superficial syntactical similarity with the first half of the Russian word for Ukrainians. [1] [2]
It was reclaimed as an ironic nickname by Ukrainian soldiers in 2014 during the war in Donbas, and a shoulder patch was designed by Andriy Yermolenko. [3] The ironic use lost popularity after it was adopted as the name of the Ukrainian political party UKROP.[ citation needed]