Latest news with #UkrainianActivists
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US Ukrainian Activists plant victory garden near Russian Embassy
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Volunteers planted their version of a victory garden in an empty lot across the street from the Russian Embassy Sunday. 'Ukraine will win,' said Nadia Shaporynska, president of U.S. Ukrainian Activists. She and others planted sunflowers, Ukraine's national flower, and have become a symbol of that nation's fight for freedom. The tradition started in April 2022, two months after Russia launched its attack on its neighbor. Ukraine's Zelenskyy says he'd be ready to give up presidency if it brought peace, NATO membership 'We are very, very happy about it,' Shaporynska said. 'We are so happy to see so many people who support Ukraine.' The garden is located in Boris Nemtsov Plaza, named for a Russian physicist and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Assassins killed Nemtsov in 2015. 'I believe it's an unjust war,' said Lindsey McGrath, one of the volunteers. 'I believe the Ukrainian people have a right to defend themselves and their homeland.' The planting came just a day before a proposed 30-day ceasefire could take effect Monday. Leaders from the European Union called for it after they met with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday. 'It would be good,' Shaporynska said. 'It would be good for both sides.' Vandals destroyed the previous gardens. But organizers will install security cameras to catch anyone who tries to do it this year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Arab News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Activists hold ‘die-in' protest at Soviet monument in Warsaw
WARSAW: Pro-Ukrainian activists held a protest at a Soviet memorial in Warsaw where Moscow's ambassador placed a wreath on Friday, as Russia celebrates World War II Victory Day. Some two dozen protesters wrapped in white sheets, their clothes and faces splattered with a red substance imitating blood, lay at the foot of a monument at the cemetery for Soviet soldiers in Poland's capital. They chanted 'terrorists' as Russia's ambassador to Poland, Sergei Andreyev, made his way to the monument with a wreath to commemorate the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany. 'The idea was that the path the ambassador would take to reach the monument would be lined with the graves of people who died innocently during the war' in Ukraine, Miroslaw Petryga, 70, who participated in the lie-in, told AFP. Poland is a staunch ally of Kyiv, supporting Ukraine with military and political aid as it fends off a Russian invasion that is grinding through its fourth year. 'It was the gait of a man pretending not to see anything, with tunnel vision,' Petryga, a Ukrainian engineer who has lived in Poland for decades, said of Andreyev. The ambassador walked past the protesters amid a heavy police presence and with a handful of supporters and security guards around him. The activists also scattered children's toys at the entrance to the cemetery. The teddy bears, balls and other items were also splattered with a blood-like liquid to symbolize child victims of Russia's war in Ukraine. Some were wearing t-shirts with the slogan 'Make Russia small again' and were collecting signatures under a petition to expel the Russian ambassador from Poland. At the site, around a dozen people also gathered at a counter protest, wearing the St. George ribbon, a historical symbol of Russian and Soviet military successes. Minor scuffles and verbal altercations broke out between the groups. A handful of people also showed up to lay flowers at the cemetery away from the protests. 'We should honor the memory of those soldiers who died in the World War,' said Natalia, a 67-year-old who held a black-and-white photo that she said showed her father who had fought in the war. The Russian citizen and longtime Polish resident declined to give her full name. In 2022, the year Russia launched the full-scale war, protesters at the Soviet mausoleum threw a red substance at Moscow's envoy. A year later Andreyev was blocked by activists from laying flowers at the monument. The Kremlin is using its annual Victory Day parade in Moscow — marking 80 years since the end of World War II — to whip up patriotism at home and project strength abroad as its troops fight in Ukraine. But for Natalia Panchenko from the pro-Ukrainian organization Euromaidan, the day should serve as a reminder of Russia's ongoing war. 'It is important to us that today, when people remember that there is a country called Russia, they do not remember Russia through Russian propaganda, but remember the real Russia,' Panchenko told AFP. 'And Russia is a terrorist state,' she said.
