Hundreds of Ukrainians demonstrated this Sunday near the Russian embassy in Lisbon against the offensive in Ukraine, accusing the Moscow regime of “genocide” and “ecocide” and asking the Portuguese parliament to define that Russia “produces terrorism”.
A banner with the inscription “World with one voice: we are Ukraine” marked the meeting point, where at 11:00 a.m. and for approximately one hour, hundreds of people of various ages gathered a few meters from the Embassy of Russia in Lisbon, calling for an end to the war in Ukraine and the condemnation of Moscow.
Speaking to reporters, the president of the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal, Pavlo Sadokha, stressed that the main objective of the demonstration was “to show yet another brutality, yet another terrorist act that Russia carried out in Ukraine, destroying the Kakhovka dam “.
“Today we want to say that this disaster is no longer just against Ukraine, against the Ukrainian people or against Ukrainian nature, because we call this act of terrorism an act of ecocide against Ukrainian nature. This is already an act against nature in Ukraine. Europe’s natural environment,” she said.
The Ukrainian authorities reported, on June 6, the bursting of the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, which caused the flooding of parts of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
The collapse of the infrastructure, for which Kiev and Moscow blame each other, “severely disturbed” the main source of drinking water on the Crimean peninsula (territory annexed by Russia), the North Crimean Canal, which receives water from the reservoir of Kakhovka.
During the rally, the Portuguese “sixth appeal to the Assembly of the Republic” was read, in which the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal asks the Portuguese parliamentarians to “clearly define that Russia is a State that supports, supplies and produces terrorism”.
“What is happening in Ukraine is a genocide carried out by the Russian state against the Ukrainians,” said Pavlo Sadokha, considering that “a recognition, a legal, juridical definition of crimes against humanity and against nature, made by Russia, you can help block Russia.” “.
“It can help to apply more sanctions, rally more countries that will support Ukraine and the world, all the countries that used to help Ukraine, to stop this war,” he added.
An opinion shared by Olga Yakovets, who defends Lusa that “the last act of terrorism they did in Kakhovka is inexplicable and they did not let the people save.”
“They are terrorists and the whole world has to admit it and has to do something, because we are all human,” he said.
Among the various protesters carrying banners — “Russians Stop Putin” (“The Russians stop Putin”), “Putin, The Hague is waiting for you” or “Peace for Ukraine” (“Peace for Ukraine”) -, who chanted The Ukrainian national anthem and a moment of silence for the victims of the war included Sofia Kucher, just 17 years old, who lives with her parents, brother and grandmother in Portugal.
“We are here [na manifestação] To guarantee peace in our land, to get out of this terrible state our land is in, we want peace and nothing else. We want our territory and our nation to never die,” he said, expressing apprehension for the rest of the family in the country at war.
In the voice of Sofia against the war launched by the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022, she meets Olga Berezhna: “For the first time, I am here today because I am a refugee, first of all, and I was forced to leave my house”.
“I am here today to show our support and protest against the genocide, because what Russia is doing is not just killing our people, just our nation, but the entire ecosystem. I think this is a global problem,” he stressed, thanking the Portuguese Government and citizens for their support.
Among the few Portuguese present today was Manuel Domingos, because he supports “unfailingly and without reservation, obviously, the Ukrainian cause.”
“Every act of Russian imperialism is, to say the least, reprehensible. It is hateful and free and has a plan behind it, which is the occupation of as much of the territory as possible that they can occupy. If Ukraine is left over, we are all at risk, so their fight is our fight,” he said.
For this reason, Nataliya Barchuk believes that “all the demonstrations since the beginning of the war are important”, so the current situation “cannot” be forgotten.
“There are rules, there are norms, but we know, those of us who lived in the former Soviet Union already know that Russia does not comply with anything,” he said, adding that “Russian propaganda, unfortunately, is very strong and powerful and, unfortunately, There are a lot of people who believe.”
Source: TSF
