“Open your eyes”, “Fuck you… Putin”. Brandishing shocking slogans and Ukrainian flags, hundreds of people gathered in Paris on Saturday to support Ukraine and denounce the Russian invasion.
“My brother has been at the front, his family and their baby in a cellar for days. It is for them that I am here, for them and for everyone because Putin is not going to stop at Ukraine, ”assures Inna, based in France for 10 years.
She recounts, like others gathered in Place de la République – mainly Ukrainians – the daily “anguish” since February 24 and the start of the Russian military invasion, the sleepless nights to exchange with relatives in Ukraine.
“Ukrainians have always known about the Russian threat, not just since the war in Donbass in 2014, we have grown up with it for generations”, underlines Kalerona Pelegré, nails colored in yellow and blue.
3.3 million people forced to flee Ukraine
“Today, the Russians have their finger on the nuclear red button and it is the whole of Europe which risks exploding”, she says in reference to the six reactors of the Zaporijia power station (east) occupied since the March 4 by the Russian army, where his sister works and is blocked.
Around her, placards call for a boycott of Russian gas and to “stop the war”. A sound system broadcasts songs by the rock group Okean Elzy, even more popular in Ukraine since it played in the metro where civilians are holed up, explains a protester.
More than 3.3 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian offensive, according to the United Nations. In France, approximately 20,000 displaced persons have been registered.
Katya, 13, is one of them. She left father and mother in Ukraine and finds herself with a classmate with cousins of the latter. “It’s very difficult to be here”, explains the schoolgirl in English. “I’m waiting for the war to end so I can go home, quickly.”