“Stop the war! Stop Putin! “: From Berlin to Prague, via Madrid and Vilnius, hundreds of thousands of people in the yellow and blue colors of Ukraine marched in Europe on Sunday to denounce the Russian invasion and express their fear of an extension of the conflict .
In Russia too, a few thousand people again defied the ban on demonstrations to say “No to war”, rallies which led to more than 2,000 arrests, according to an NGO.
In Saint Petersburg, the country’s second largest city, around 400 people gathered in a central square to express their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine, AFP noted.
In Berlin, at least 100,000 people, according to the police, gathered in the center, 70,000 in Prague, 40,000 in Madrid, 15,000 in Amsterdam or 10,000 in Copenhagen.
In Berlin the mobilization was five times higher than what the organizers expected, testifying to the emotion aroused by the war in Ukraine, which awakens dark memories in this metropolis which was the epicenter of the Cold War until 1990.
“Berlin 670 km from the front line”, “Stop the killer” or even “No 3rd World War” could be read on the signs held up by the protesters often draped in yellow and blue.
“Slava Ukraini” (Glory to Ukraine), also launched demonstrators in front of the Russian Embassy waving the country’s flags.
Fear of a world war
“It is not enough to say that Putin is a villain, Germany must fight for democracy and take its responsibilities,” Hans Georg Kieler, 49, told AFP, while his government hesitated for a long time before to break with its conciliatory policy towards Moscow.
“My mother is (refugee) in a cellar […]my father at home, on the ground floor in a northern district of Kiev”, testifies in the middle of the crowd one of the participants, Valeria Moiseeva, a 35-year-old Ukrainian, pregnant.
Germany hosts more than 300,000 people of Ukrainian origin or nationality on its soil, as well as a large Russian diaspora, particularly in Berlin.
In Prague, the famous Wenceslas Square in the heart of the Czech capital, was crowded. A symbolic place because it is there in particular that the confrontation with the Russian tanks took place in 1968 during the “Prague Spring”.
“Shame”, shouted the protesters, brandishing signs “Stop the monster” and comparing the Russian head of state to Adolf Hitler.
“It’s really terrible, all this must stop,” said Darya Ostapenko, a Ukrainian who came with her children.
“Putin terrorist! », « Putin get out of Ukraine! chanted the crowd meanwhile in central Madrid. “The sanctions taken so far are very soft and Putin doesn’t care, the only thing that could affect him is if someone helps us militarily”, Nadia Pavlyuk, a Ukrainian living in the Spanish capital.
“Glory to Ukraine”
Nearly 10,000 people took part in a demonstration in support of Ukraine on Sunday in front of the Russian embassy in Copenhagen. “It is all of you and all of Europe who are threatened by Russia”, launched the head of government Mette Frederiksen, who was present.
In Vilnius, Lithuania, hundreds of demonstrators marched shouting “Glory to Ukraine”. “Our Ukrainian brothers would not forgive us for our silence,” Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania, told reporters.
In the streets of Athens, where at least a thousand people have gathered, Levgeniia Rodionova, a 40-year-old Ukrainian, does not hide her fear. “If we don’t stop Putin now, he won’t be able to stop him in the world, he must be stopped now in Kyiv to prevent him from attacking other cities in Europe,” he said. -she.
Demonstrations also took place in Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bilbao, Podgorica and Tel Aviv, but also in Ecuador, where a small group of protesters held up “Putin assassin” signs in front of the Russian Embassy.
In France, small rallies took place in several cities, including Paris, Lyon or Toulouse, where a few thousand demonstrators shouted their opposition to the war.
Even in Iraq, a few dozen Ukrainian expatriates gathered outside a UN building in Erbil, Kurdistan. “Stop the war,” says a sign held up by two young women. Another reads: “We are proud of the Ukrainian army”.