The blue and yellow painted sheet of corrugated iron is believed to have appeared on the roadside on State Highway 8 shortly after the Russian invasion of the Eastern European nation on February 24.
The sign was defaced with a large "Z" sometime in the past two weeks.
As of yesterday, the Z is barely visible, having been painted over in the past few days.
The Otago Daily Times reported on Tuesday the connotations of the Z, which has become known as a "zwastika" or "zwaztika" — a reference to the Nazi swastika.
The Latin-script letter Z is a symbol painted on Russian military vehicles involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
The letter Z does not exist in the Cyrillic alphabet and its equivalent character resembles the numeral 3.
It is speculated that the Z helps Russian forces distinguish themselves from Ukraine’s military, but it has subsequently become a symbol used in Russian propaganda both inside and outside of Russia.
