In Berlin, 100,000 people took to the streets to oppose the war waged by Russian forces in Ukraine. Dozens of other demonstrations took place in Europe over the weekend, but also in the United States, Japan, or even in Iran and Australia.
“People keep coming, it doesn’t stop”observes Yuri, a 30-year-old Ukrainian quoted by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. This Sunday, February 27, the images are impressive: some 100,000 people gathered in Berlin to express their solidarity with the Ukrainians and oppose the war waged by Russian forces, according to the police.
The organizers had counted on the presence “of 20,000 attendees”, reports the German daily. But as the time to start the procession approached, the peace demonstrators arrived “everywhere, on foot, by bike, by train”. The police had to close the Brandenburg Gate station due to the crowds.
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Tens of thousands of people had already demonstrated the day before, Saturday February 27, “in major European cities”, remember NPR, “while protests have taken place in places as far apart as Japan, Iran, Australia and the United States”. On its website, Al-Jazeera keeps growing the list cities in which demonstrations were organized as a sign of support for Ukraine: this Sunday, the media counted more than seventy.
- Images of the demonstration organized on Saturday February 26 in Tokyo, relayed on Twitter:
While the Iranian regime supports Vladimir Putin, spontaneous demonstrations were noted in Iran this Saturday, as can be seen in this photo, taken in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Tehran, Saturday February 26:
Feet in the snow, on the other side of the globe, Montrealers also took to the streets this Sunday, as shown by these images relayed on Twitter:
In addition to this massive international mobilization, new demonstrations also took place in Russia despite the repression. In Moscow in particular, citizens came to lay flowers at the place where the opponent Boris Nemtsov was assassinated seven years ago, after taking a stand against the war in Donbass. Symbolic commemorations, to which were added demonstrations for peace. Late Sunday afternoon, theONG OVD-Info tallied nearly 1,800 arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia on Sunday alone.
Melanie Chenouard