VIDEO. The pond at the Russian Embassy in Vilnius is painted red

In response to the crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, the pond at the Russian embassy in Vilnius is painted red.

During the campaign, Rūta Meilutīte, the swimming champion of the 2012 Olympic Games, swam across the red pond.

According to Paulius Vaiteķēns, a representative of the Lithuanian capital municipality, told the BNS news agency, the purpose of this campaign is to help draw the world’s attention to the war crimes in Russia.

Yulia Samorokovsky, a spokeswoman for the Vilnius County Police, told the agency that the protest had been coordinated with the environmental protection services and that the coloring matter used was not harmful to the environment.

The authors of the idea are Berta Tilmantaite, Neringa Rekašūte and Aurēlija Urbonavičiūte, creators of the journalism platform NARA, as well as Rūta Meilutīte.

With the start of the war in Ukraine, a protest took place at the Russian Embassy in Vilnius for several days, but in March the street in the direction of the embassy was renamed the Street of Ukrainian Heroes.

On Monday, the Lithuanian government decided to reduce the status of diplomatic representation in relations with Russia to the level of authorized clerks and demanded that the country’s ambassador Alexei Isakov leave Lithuania, at the same time deciding to close the Russian consulate in Klaipeda.