A nine-year-old boy stood on a stage in front of hundreds of people at the Trafalgar Square rally in London on March 20 and called Russia a bully. Little Mykola urged protesters to stand with Ukraine. Loud chants of ‘Stop Killing Our Kids’ reverberated around the crowd on Sunday.
The defining message from the podium was for the world to stop watching the genocide being inflicted and the killing of Ukraine’s future generation, and for Western leaders to wake up and act to stop the war.
A cheer went up when it was announced that the Italian government has pledged to rebuild the theatre bombed by Putin’s army in Mariupol on Wednesday, March 16. Hundreds of women and children remain trapped inside the building as street fighting intensifies.
Ihor Ruzhak, from Lviv, said: “It is heart-breaking to hear that my daughter has to sit with her two small children in a bomb shelter.” His wife Viktoria said: “When my 12-year-old grandson said that the first time he heard sirens he was scared, but by the fourth time he was no longer scared, my heart was bleeding. My hands have been shaking so much I need pills to deal with it.”
Mr Ruzhak said his son-in-law is a bus driver and he has been making frequent trips to Italy taking women and children refugees.
Orysia Marciuk was fundraising for Ukrainian scout group Plast. “Our scouts are fighting in the self-defence groups and army. They need night vision goggles and tourniquets. Every day our ambulance goes to Ukraine fully packed with first aid kits. We have sent thousands.”
Orysia Marciuk was present raising money for scouts fighting in the war (Photo Credit: Tony Leliw)
An interesting turn of events in her family was that her English husband’s Ukrainian language teacher from Kyiv was now coming to England to stay with them as a refugee.
Cleric Myroslav Pushkaruk, of the Ukrainian Orthodox Parish of the Holy Intercession Church in Paddington, London, said he had a brother in the self-defence force in Ivano Frankivsk. “Ukraine will win because it has the support of the world behind it. Our church will be helping refugees to adapt into this country.”
Kit Li from Hong Kong was holding a large black, plastic bottle with the words peace, freedom and no war. “It’s my Molotov cocktail, which symbolises resistance, protection, and bravery,” she said.
Her first connection with Ukraine was when she was 14 doing a Home Economics class and decided to do a project on the country. Since then as a photographer in the fashion industry, she has had Ukrainian clients and friends. “Russia is encroaching on Ukraine, China is encroaching on Hong Kong. There is a big parallel,” she said. Earlier freedoms given to the people of Hong Kong under the doctrine of ‘one country, two systems’ are now being whittled away, Kit Li added.
Hong Kong protester Kit Li with her peace bottle (Photo Credit: Tony Leliw)
David, 39, a university teacher from Brighton, said: “I support Ukraine because I have family there.” He is from Singapore and his wife Viktoria, comes from Ivano-Frankivsk. She said: “We are terrified with what’s happening in Ukraine. I’ve tried to get my mother to come here, but she said that she will come to England when Ukraine is victorious.”
Melanie Shutak, 60, said: “I have two cousins but they don’t want to come here. They are building homes, but they don’t know if they will be standing once the war has ended. I have been to a few rallies, one of which was outside the Russian Embassy. A Russian woman was so ashamed by what her government had done that she burnt her passport.”
Antonio Gresko, 59, said: “I urge people to boycott Nestle, who are trading with Russia and make Kit Kat, Aero, and Quality Street chocolates. Their profits are killing our children. This is not our war, it’s a European war.”
Oksana Wenger, 62, was with her 24-year-old son Gregory. She had left her 99-year-old father at her London home, saying her father was shocked when he heard that Russia had invaded Ukraine. “He watches Ukrainian television all the time. I tell him not to watch it in the evening as it will make him upset,” she added.
Protester Oksana Wenger and son Gregory (Photo Credit: Tony Leliw)
Ukrainians also gathered for a rally on Saturday, March 19 in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester. They thanked Hong Kongers and other nationalities for their support. They all joined forces to call for an end to Putin’s genocide in Ukraine and asked for more weapons, humanitarian aid and for a no-fly zone to be put in place over the skies of Ukraine.
Ukrainians at a rally on March 19 in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, thanked Hong Kongers for their continued support. (Photo Credit: Steve Leliw)
