Thousands of demonstrators marched across Europe on Friday to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A year after the start of the war, a wrecked Russian tank was displayed in front of the embassy in Berlin, the gun pointed towards the entrance.
From the UK to the Baltics, leaders from across Europe took part in ceremonies, underlining their unwavering support for Ukraine and paying tribute to the victims of the conflict.
The crowd fell silent for a minute in Freedom Square in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, where European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met to honor the memory of the dead.
In London, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also observed a minute’s silence outside Downing Street before the Ukrainian anthem was sung by two singers wearing traditional Ukrainian shirts.
In the German capital, which remained a symbol of the Cold War with the wall that cut it in two for almost 28 years, thirteen demonstrations took place, bringing together thousands of people: eleven in favor of Ukraine, one against arms deliveries and one for peace.
The biggest of them, organized under the banner “we will never forget”, had around 8,000 participants, according to a police spokeswoman.
At the Berlin International Film Festival, a demonstration of solidarity with Ukraine brought together dozens of film personalities on the red carpet, including the president of the jury, American star Kristen Stewart, who waved Ukrainian flags and signs in the colors of Ukraine.
In western Germany, between the cities of Osnabrück and Münster, around 18,000 people formed a human chain for peace, holding hands for several minutes.
In the morning, passers-by were able to observe in the heart of the German capital, a few steps from the emblematic Brandenburg Gate, a Russian tank that activists had towed in the night to place it in front of the Russian embassy.
This unusual image had attracted many curious people on Friday morning, including classes on school visits.
“We were passing by and we saw a crowd, it’s weird to see a tank like that” in the middle of Berlin, Allen Eapen, a 22-year-old Indian who studies in this city, told AFP.
The tank, type T-72 B1, dating from 1985, was destroyed, probably by a mine, on March 31, 2022 near Boutcha, in the suburbs of Kiev. Part of the tracks are crushed, as is the turret, partially pulverized.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin, Oleksiï Makeyev, had gone to the site where the wreckage is located at midday.
In Bucharest, a few hundred people, mostly Ukrainians and many children, marched to the Russian Embassy shouting “Crimea is Ukrainian!”, “Terrorist Russia!” or “Stop the war!”.
In Sofia, a thousand gathered on Friday in front of the Bulgarian presidency building, waving yellow and blue flags.
Demonstrations also took place in Warsaw and Bern, while diplomats from around 30 countries gathered in the immediate vicinity of the United Nations in Geneva, also in a sign of solidarity with Ukraine.
In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was illuminated Thursday evening in yellow and blue colors, like the buildings of the European Commission and Parliament in Brussels or the National Theater in Warsaw and the Place d’Armes, in the heart of Luxembourg.
Hundreds of people gathered in the French capital on Friday evening to pay tribute to the “heroic” resistance of the Ukrainian people.
In Marseille, the second city of France, several hundred people gathered in front of the Town Hall, in a cloud of Ukrainian flags, carrying signs “all the world stand by Ukraine” (“everyone supports Ukraine “).
This gathering was held not far from the anchor offered by the Ukrainian city of Odessa and repositioned for a year on the Old Port to recall the twinning between the two port cities.
A little earlier in Toulouse, a city twinned with kyiv, a hundred people had gathered near the Place du Capitole. Other demonstrations took place across France, from Strasbourg in the east to Lille in the north.
In London, liters of paint were dumped in front of the Russian Embassy to repaint the roadway in Ukrainian colors and hundreds of Britons went to Trafalgar Square for the occasion.
24/02/2023 20:27:37 – Berlin (AFP) © 2023 AFP