(Brussels) Thousands of people demonstrated Sunday for the second consecutive day in many European cities, to denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Posted at 1:37 p.m.
In Brussels, around 5,000 people, according to police, took to the streets, waving numerous Ukrainian flags.
“Russians, go home!” chanted the crowd. “Stop the war”, “Europe, be brave, act now”, could be read on placards brandished by the protesters. Some protesters wore yellow flowers with blue ribbons.
PHOTO YVES HERMAN, REUTERS
In Brussels, around 5,000 people, according to police, took to the streets, waving numerous Ukrainian flags.
In Toulouse, in the south-west of France, a city twinned with Kyiv, the demonstrators marched behind a large yellow and blue banner, brandishing portraits of the Russian president stained in red and proclaiming “Stop Putin assassin”.
Representing the skies of Ukraine, a five-by-five-meter cloud of blue canvas was unfurled by protesters, calling to “close the airspace”, shouting “Let’s protect the skies of Ukraine”.
In the north of France, some 5,000 people gathered in support of Ukraine in front of the Caen memorial, specializing in the 1944 Allied landings in Normandy.
The Ukrainian flag was hoisted and many people present sported the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag, noted an AFP journalist.
“People of Ukraine, we will not let you go! Democracy, Freedom, Peace,” read one sign.
“Close the sky, not your eyes”
In Spain, demonstrations took place in Madrid, Barcelona (northeast) and other cities to demand an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Many blue and yellow flags waved in Barcelona’s central Plaza de Catalunya, where authorities said around 800 people gathered with banners reading “Close the skies, not your eyes”, “NATO, protect the sky of Ukraine” or “Stop Putin, stop the war”.
“They attack, destroy and kill civilians for no reason,” said Natalia Brodovska, a 45-year-old Ukrainian lawyer who has lived in Spain for eight years.
“It’s horrible, we can’t sleep or eat. I think all Ukrainians feel that. But the situation of my people who are in Ukraine is much worse,” she added.
In Belgrade, hundreds of people gathered to express their support for Ukraine, two days after a demonstration in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We want to save face in Belgrade because what happened on Friday (the pro-Russian rally) is really a disgrace,” said Zdravko Jankovic, a 46-year-old mathematician.
About 100 people also gathered in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, on Sunday to express their support for Ukraine.
On Saturday, thousands of demonstrators had already taken to the streets in Paris, New York, Rome or Zürich, to say “stop” to the war and to protest against the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.