La sociología: Thousands attend Ukraine solidarity march in Berlin

Police mentioned 100,000 folks attended the protest within the German capital, whereas organisers positioned the quantity at half one million.

Greater than 100,000 folks in Germany’s capital Berlin have attended a solidarity march to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, police mentioned, with many protesters dressed within the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Police mentioned giant crowds crammed the realm initially deliberate for the demonstration on Sunday, and that they had been allocating extra house to accommodate the protesters. Organisers of the march mentioned half one million folks had turned up.

Bearing posters like “No World Conflict 3”, “Cease the killer”, or “Berlin at 640 km [400 miles] from the entrance traces”, the protesters massed on the Brandenburg Gate, a brief distance from the Russian embassy.

“You will need to me for Germany to point out that it’s standing for democracy in Europe,” Hans Georg Kieler, 49, informed AFP.

Whereas praising Germany’s choice to start delivering armaments, he mentioned his nation “might have helped Ukraine extra”.

Ukrainian Valeria Moiseeva, 35, whose mom was sitting in a cellar in Kyiv in worry of bombs, mentioned “I’m personally dissatisfied by Russia, I hate Russia, I hate all Russians.”

Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, mentioned the excessive turn-out was a “clear illustration of all these individuals who felt moved to come back to this demonstration”.

“You may have political events, all expressing their condemnation of what President Putin and his authorities are doing in Ukraine,” Kane mentioned. “There seems to be a dedication to do one thing about it in any means Germany can.”

Approximately 100,000 people attend a pro-Ukraine protest rally in Berlin, Germany

Demonstrations had been held over the weekend throughout many European cities, together with London, Paris, Rome, Brussels, Vienna, Madrid and Sofia.

In the meantime, from Moscow to Siberia, Russian anti-war activists took to the streets once more on Sunday regardless of the arrests of tons of of protesters every day by police.

“I’ve two sons and I don’t wish to give them to that bloody monster. Conflict is a tragedy for all of us,” 48-year-old Dmitry Maltsev, who joined the rally in St Petersburg, informed The Related Press.

Russian police have cracked down on the rallies and detained protesters. The Kremlin has sought to downplay the protests, insisting that a much wider share of Russians help the assault on Ukraine.

In St Petersburg, a number of hundred folks gathered within the metropolis centre had been met by police in full riot gear, who dragged a lot of protesters into police vans.

Footage from Moscow confirmed police throwing a number of feminine protesters on the bottom earlier than dragging them away.

In line with the OVD-Data rights group that tracks political arrests, by Sunday night police detained a minimum of 1,474 Russians in 45 cities over anti-war demonstrations that day.