With torchlight marches or simple street walks, demonstrations of solidarity with Ukraine and against the Russian invasion are multiplying around the world, from Argentina to Georgia to Italy. In Bogotá, on Saturday afternoon, a group of people stood in front of the Russian embassy in Colombia to ask for peace.
“We must increase the pressure of the world (against Russia). It is a war between dictatorship and democracy,” declared a protester. Several thousand people gathered across Switzerland to support Ukraine and denounce the invasion by Russian forces. In Geneva, the demonstration gathered more than 1,000 people, according to the police, in the Place des Nations, just in front of the UN headquarters.
The protesters, often draped in the Ukrainian flag or dressed in yellow and blue colors, gathered in the shadow of the Broken Chair, a monumental sculpture depicting a chair with a shattered foot, symbolizing the civilian casualties of the war.
In Rome, a meeting called by various unions and associations brought together more than 1,000 people, in a square in the center of the city around a podium adorned with the inscription: ‘Against the war’. The demonstrators, some as families, carried banners with ‘Make love, not war’, ‘We want peace’…
The day before, a torchlight march of thousands of participants had marched through the night to the Colosseum. Some posters showed the Russian president with a blood-stained hand on his faceor comparing him to Hitler through the mention: ‘Do you know how to recognize history when it repeats itself?’
“We have always been close to the Ukrainian people (…). From here, our feeling of helplessness is enormous. We can’t do anything else at the moment,” Maria Sergi, 40, an Italian born in Russia, told AFP. Vladimir Putin “has done a lot of harm, even to his own people. We have numerous friends who have suffered greatly because of his politics,” she added.
We Russians and Ukrainians have a lot in common. So my main feeling is anger. The last thing I imagined was that the Russians would come to kill my people
In Athens, in front of the Russian embassy, more than 2,000 people gathered at the call of the Greek Communist Party and the Syriza Radical Left Party. Traditionally pro-Russian, these parties denounce “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” and an “imperialist war against a people.”
Taipei, Curitiba (Brazil), New York and Washington have also been the scene of demonstrations. In Argentina, nearly 2,000 people, including Ukrainian immigrants and Argentines of Ukrainian descent, demonstrated in Buenos Aires, asking the Russian embassy for “the unconditional withdrawal” of “assassin” Putin’s troops.
Surrounded by “a Ukrainian flag, dressed in traditional costumes, with banners in Spanish, Ukrainian or English saying ‘Stop the war’ or ‘Putin remove your hands from Ukraine’, the protesters chanted slogans in Ukrainian, such as ‘Glory to Ukraine, Glory to your heroes’, and sang the Ukrainian and Argentine anthems.
“Russians and Ukrainians have a lot in common. So my main feeling is anger. The last thing I imagined was that the Russians would come to kill my people,” cried Tetiana Abramchenko, 40, who arrived with her daughter in Argentina in 2014, after the Russian annexation of Crimea.
The inhabitants of Tokyo participated in a demonstration to denounce the war in Ukraine.
In Montreal (Canada), dozens of people did not hesitate to brave a snowstorm to protest under the windows of the Russian consulate general. “Putin, take your hands off Ukraine,” they sang in chorus. “I hope it is the beginning of the end of the regime.” Other demonstrations have also been organized in Halifax, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Toronto in recent days.
IRAQI METREVEL
AFP
#Peace #Ukraine #cry #thousands #world