Credit: Ali Sahib
Around 250 people of different ages and nationalities gathered in Luxembourg City on Thursday afternoon to protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Following the news of the invasion in the early hours of Thursday morning, the Luxembourg-based non-profit organisation LUkraine asbl rapidly mobilised and organised a demonstration to be held that same afternoon.
According to Chronicle.lu's estimations, there were around 250 people who joined the protest, which departed from Place de Clairefontaine. Protesters then walked through the city centre, chanting "Stop Putin, stop war" and singing the Ukrainian national anthem.
Nicolas Zharov, President of LUkraine asbl, addressed the crowd in front of the Ministry of State building (next to Place de Clairefontaine). "Europe, as it was before this moment, before this morning, it cannot exist unaltered. Because even if Ukraine is not part of the European Union, it is part of Europe and we all have the European spirit", he said. "It is for this reason that we are now demanding the support of all Europeans, Luxembourgers. We must stop Putin. Our message is clear: we are against war but Ukraine will resist [...] and we are demanding your military, monetary and political support".
Speaking to Chronicle.lu, one of the protesters, Ilona Goncharenko, a language tutor in Luxembourg who is originally from Ukraine, stated: "The Ukrainians are not making war, we are defending our motherland. And we will not fall. I am proud of my father and his fellows, who are protecting all the borders".
Another protester, Valeria, a young woman from Kyiv who has been living in Luxembourg for almost five years, said she had spoken with her parents (who are in Kyiv) this morning. They told her they could hear bombings in their residential district. The airport has been destroyed and there are "huge traffic jams in all directions from the city". She added that similar scenes could be witnessed in other big Ukrainian cities. Her parents also told her there were huge queues outside banks, ATMs and supermarkets as people struggled to access cash and get food.
For her part, Zhanna said she was there today to "support Ukraine in general" and more specifically her relatives who live there. "I want this hell to stop", she said. She received a phone call from her mother in the early hours of this morning, saying she had heard bombings. "That really shocked me. This shouldn't happen these days. The world should react immediately to that, because these are civilians, innocent people. We are on our own territory. We did nothing wrong." She expressed gratitute to everyone around the world for their support in these challenging times.
Zhanna added: "No one knows what is going to [happen] next. No one knows how to be prepared. But the people in Ukraine are generally very organised. We've had revolutions, difficult situations like this in Ukraine before so we know how to be calm and [...] support each other. I'm pretty sure that Ukraine will be the winner of this hell at the end but I just don't want that anyone dies in this horror".
Photo by Roman Kryvchenko
