Five dozen Ukrainians gathered in Lisbon on Sunday morning to demand support for Ukraine’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Summoned to Praça do Comércio by the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal, raising flags and holding signs, the demonstrators thanked the support Portugal has given to Ukraine, whose territory was invaded by Russian forces on February 24 last year.
“Thank you, Portugal!” they shouted, in particular a salute to the Prime Minister, António Costa.
On Saturday, the Portuguese government expressed its support for Ukraine joining NATO “when circumstances allow”.
In a joint statement signed by Ukraine and Portugal and released after a telephone conversation between António Costa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the government believes that “the future of Ukraine and its people lies in the European family” and is agree with the need to increase pressure on Russia through more sanctions.
At Praça do Comércio, while the Ukrainian national anthem is sung in the background, Pavlo Sadokha, president of the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal, admits that Ukraine’s membership of NATO “is not possible” in this time of “fully active war”, but underlined that it was important for the country to secure a date at the summit of the Atlantic Alliance, scheduled for the 11th and 12th in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.
“We need to know that Ukraine will be [membro da NATO]that all these efforts we are making will lead to Ukraine joining the NATO bloc in the future and being protected there from future invasions by Russia,” he said.
In addition, he added, Ukrainian forces are conducting a counter-offensive on the ground and need more military assistance. “There is a lack of ammunition, planes…”, he recalls, hoping that “the promised aid” will be “faster”, to “save many lives” and “end the war” .
more united community
Pavlo Sadokha devalues the number of those present at the concentration, at a time when the conflict has lasted 500 days, and guarantees that “every element” of the Ukrainian community in Portugal “is doing something”, whether it be collecting goods or ” otherwise”.
“Since the beginning of the war, we have come together more, we have become more united to support Ukraine,” agrees Olga Yakovets, one of the voices who stood out during the Ukrainian national anthem.
“We need support. Only now, as a country, we are very weak. With the world, with Europe, we will manage to do much more and achieve freedom,” he says, thanks to the constant help of Portugal, who is asked to “keep helping”.
Nestor Kondra, a 19-year-old university student, confesses that he did not expect to see a war of this “large scale”, even though it began not 500 days ago, but nine years ago, with the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of Donetsk and Lugansk by Russian troops.
“It somehow changed my life, [mas] not as much as those who live in Ukraine,” he insists, telling that he has relatives in Lviv, a place that has been “more or less quiet” since the beginning of the war, even though it was attacked a few days ago with rockets.
The sign he is holding speaks of “ecocide” and features a drawing of the Kakhovka Dam, in southern Ukraine, bombed and destroyed by Russia in May.
“The environmental issue is now more important than ever,” he insists, stressing that “actions” such as the one where the dam was destroyed “should be fully condemned so that disasters do not happen.”
Nestor also shares enlightening words about the impact this conflict will have on new generations: “I have no Russian friends. (…) We are neighbors, yes, but we don’t have much in common. People think we have a lot in common, but we are not… Sometimes we hear that we are sister nations, but no, we are not, I don’t think we are”.
This Sunday afternoon there will be similar demonstrations, in support of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, in Coimbra (5pm, Praça 8 de Maio) and Porto (6.30pm, Fonte dos Leões).
Source: DN
