In Berlin, a rusting T-72 tank was left outside the Russian embassy, and in Belgrade it was a bloody cake decorated with a skull; while other countries held up banners with slogans criticising Russia.
Ukraine’s allies around the world lit up buildings in yellow and blue, held protests and candlelight vigils and prepared new sanctions on Moscow on Friday in a collective show of support on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion. As the war grinds on with no sign of ending, anti-Russian protesters also carried out symbolic gestures. In Berlin, they left a rusting Russian T-72 tank outside the Russian embassy that was destroyed and captured in the first weeks of the war. In Belgrade, pro-Ukrainian groups left a bloody cake decorated with a skull in front of the Russian embassy. Governments from Washington to London to Berlin have said they will stick by Ukraine for as long as it takes, sending aid and advanced weaponry to Kyiv and ratcheting up sanctions pressure on Moscow. In Germany, which has ditched its “Wandel durch Handel” (change through trade) approach to Russia and funnelled weapons to Ukraine, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the invasion was an assault on the lessons of the two world wars. “It is an attack on everything we stand for”, he said, calling Russia’s invasion an “epochal breach”. EU rejects Beijing’s ‘misplaced’ plan for peace in Ukraine In Poland, sandwiched between Germany and Ukraine, protesters held up a banner reading “Russia is a terrorist state” and sounded sirens outside a residential building for Russian embassy employees in Warsaw.
