Torchlight marches or rallies: Ukraine’s blue and yellow colors floated on Saturday in numerous demonstrations around the world in which Russian President Vladimir Putin was jeered, from Israel to Argentina to Italy , Georgia and Austria.
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In Strasbourg, headquarters of the Council of Europe in eastern France, 3,100 people according to the prefecture gathered with Ukrainian flags and placards proclaiming “Putin killer” (“Putin killer”) or “Stop the war” .
“Putin and all his clique will have to pay the price for this aggression and will have to face an international tribunal,” Borys Tarasyuk, permanent representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe, told the crowd.
Several thousand people also gathered across Switzerland on Saturday, including a thousand, according to the police, in Geneva opposite the United Nations’ main headquarters in Europe, in support of Ukraine, which is facing a Russian invasion, demanding strong measures against Moscow.
Other demonstrations took place in London, Paris, Tel Aviv and Rome.
Late Saturday morning in the center of the Italian capital, a rally at the call of trade unions and associations brought together more than a thousand people, sometimes with families, around a podium decorated with the inscription: “Against the war”. The demonstrators brandished signs: “Make love, not war”, “We want peace”…
Already the night before, a torchlight march to the Colosseum had mobilized thousands of people in Rome.
“Putin, assassin!”, “Ban Russia from Swift”, the international system of interbank exchanges, could one read on banners. Placards showed Russian President Vladimir Putin with a bloodstained hand on his face, or comparing him to Hitler with the words: “Can you recognize history when it repeats itself?”.
“Down with Putler”, could be read on signs brandished in the crowd estimated at 3,000 people by the police on Saturday in Vienna, Austria, among which Ukrainian speakers on the verge of tears, while hundreds of people also demonstrated in Linz and in Graz.
Several thousand people also gathered on Saturday at midday in Helsinki, according to Finnish police. “Russia out, down with Putin,” shouted demonstrators in this neighboring country of Russia.
Nearly a thousand people demonstrated in Barcelona, according to an estimate by the municipal police.
“Today it is in Ukraine, but tomorrow it may be in other countries. We are in contact with our parents every day because we don’t know what can happen to our family, ”worried Irina Imalova, 43-year-old Ukrainian and restaurateur in Catalonia.
In London, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Russian Embassy and the offices of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, waving Ukrainian flags.
It was in Georgia, the former Soviet republic of the Caucasus, that the mobilization was particularly important on Friday evening: nearly 30,000 people marched in Tbilisi, waving Ukrainian and Georgian flags and singing the anthems of the two countries.
The war, which according to Kiev has already killed at least 198 civilians, has caused a feeling of deja vu in this country, which was also the victim of a devastating Russian invasion in 2008.
“We have compassion for Ukrainians, perhaps more than other countries, because we have experienced Russia’s barbaric aggression on our soil,” taxi driver Niko Tvauri told AFP. 32 years old.
“The whole world must resist Putin who wants to restore the Soviet Union,” said a French teacher, Meri Tordia, 55. “Ukraine is bleeding, the world is watching and talking about sanctions that can’t stop Putin,” she added tearfully.
In Athens on Friday night, in front of the Russian embassy, more than 2,000 people gathered at the call of the Greek Communist Party and the Radical Left party Syriza. Traditionally pro-Russian, these parties have denounced “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” and an “imperialist war against a people.”
These demonstrations of solidarity are not confined to Europe: in Montreal, Canada, dozens of people braved a snowstorm on Friday afternoon to protest under the windows of the Russian Consulate General.
In Argentina, nearly 2,000 people, including Ukrainian immigrants and Argentine descendants of Ukrainians, demonstrated in Buenos Aires on Friday, asking the Russian embassy for “the unconditional withdrawal” of the troops of the “assassin” Putin.
Wearing a Ukrainian flag, dressed in traditional costumes, carrying signs in Spanish, Ukrainian or English saying “Stop the war” or “Putin take your hands off Ukraine”, the demonstrators chanted slogans in Ukrainian, such as as “Glory to Ukraine, glory to its heroes” and sang 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 were going to come and kill my people,” Tetiana Abramchenko, 40, told AFP on the verge of tears, arriving with her daughter in Argentina in 2014, after the Russian annexation of Crimea.
Tokyo, Taipei, Curitiba (Brazil), New York and Washington have also been the scene of protests.
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