Thousands of people protest around the world against Russia’s aggression against Ukraine

Russian police arrested nearly 1,400 people in several cities on Thursday for participating in demonstrations rejecting the Russian offensive against Ukraine, according to human rights organizations. Other protests were also registered in Prague, Bucharest, Tel Aviv, Lisbon and New York.

In the case of Russia, the NGO OVD-info affirms that at least 1,391 people were arrested in 51 cities, 719 in Moscow, where AFP witnessed dozens of arrests.

Russia has strict legislation to control demonstrations, which usually end with massive arrests. The Russian authorities threatened this Thursday to repress any “unauthorized” demonstration related to “the tense situation in terms of foreign policy.”

Numerous activists called on the population on social media to defy that order and take to the streets, after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his offensive against Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday.

About 2,000 people gathered in Moscow’s central Pushkin Square and about 1,000 in the former imperial capital of St. Petersburg. Protesters in Pushkin Square shouted “No to war!”

In Prague, some 5,000 people demonstrated in the central Wenceslas Square. Apart from this demonstration, there was another concentration in front of the Russian embassy in the Czech capital, attended by hundreds of people.

Meanwhile, in Bucharest, some 300 people took to the streets to show rejection of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and express their solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

The rally had been called by non-governmental organizations in front of the Ukrainian embassy in the Romanian capital, where the protesters displayed banners with slogans against the Russian president and in support of the Ukrainians.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis, many of them of Ukrainian origin, demonstrated in front of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv and demanded an end to the offensive.

In heavy rain and at times hail, protesters waved Ukrainian flags and raised banners bearing anti-Putin messages.

“Murderer Putin”, “Putin is the new Hitler” and “Stop the Russian attack on Ukraine”, read some of the signs carried by the protesters, who sang and shouted messages in Hebrew, Ukrainian and Russian, while many of those present they referred to their relatives who remain in Ukraine.

On the other hand, the demonstrators expressed their dissatisfaction with what they considered an overly measured response by Israel towards the Russian offensive.

In Times Square, in New York, two hundred Ukrainian citizens and relatives demonstrated to denounce Russia’s aggression against their country and the beginning of the bombing last night.

Gathering around a gigantic Ukrainian flag held by about 40 people as they waved it, the protesters, backed by New Yorkers, called for stronger support for their country.

“Stop Russia now”, “Stop the war” and “Help Ukraine now”, they shouted loudly, sometimes in their own language, on a bitterly cold day when some wrapped themselves in the Ukrainian flag as they sang their National anthem.

At the same time, in Portugal, hundreds of people, especially Ukrainians and Russians, gathered in different cities of the country to protest and ask for international support and condemn Putin’s decisions.

The most massive was held in front of the Russian embassy in Lisbon, at the end of the afternoon, where several hundred citizens, the vast majority Ukrainians, called for the end of the conflict and the intervention of the international community in favor of Ukraine.

Support for Ukraine and protests against the war spread to other cities in Portugal, such as Porto and Vilamoura (Algarve), in front of the Russian consulates. (I)