Ukrainian diaspora in Europe held demonstrations against Russian aggression
On February 28th, protests against Russian aggression in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea were held in France, Italy, Spain and other European countries. In particular, numerous activists gathered under the flags of Ukraine and the European Union in Paris, Lisbon and Rome, and held peaceful demonstrations to remind the world about the annexation of Crimea and Russian aggression, Radio Svoboda reported.
In Paris, the slogans made by the participants of the event were made in French because, according to organizers, the event was particularly for Frenchmen. In Lisbon, slogans were heard in Ukrainian, English and Portuguese.
Participants sang the Ukrainian anthem and chanted, “Ukraine is Europe, Crimea is Ukraine” and called for the release of illegally imprisoned Ukrainians – Nadiya Savchenko, Oleg Sentsov, Olexandr Kolchenko, Nicolay Karpyuk and Stanislav Klyh.
In the Russian Federation, they are accused of participating in military activities on the side of the Chechen Army during the First Chechen War. Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014. Ukraine doesn’t recognize the accession of Crimea to the Russian Federation and considers the peninsula to be its territory. The European Union countries and the U.S.A. also do not recognize the accession of the Crimean peninsula to Russia.
The U.S.A. and the European Union imposed sanctions against a number of Russian citizens after the annexation of Crimea. The lists of banned people were approved and their accounts were frozen.