No pasarán: anti-fascist slogan takes on new significance in Ukraine crisis

Volunteers of the International Brigades being trained in Albacete, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War. Photograph: Photo 12/Alamy

When the anti-Putin activist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the Pussy Riot punk group, was tried for blasphemy in Moscow in 2012, she wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a defiant raised fist and the Spanish slogan “no pasarán”: they shall not pass.

The phrase is associated with the Spanish civil war, which Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has made terrifyingly relevant – especially as volunteer fighters from across the world gather to defend the country from his attack.