A demonstration on Avenida Paulista this Friday (25) brought together about 50 people in a show of support for the Ukrainian people after Russia’s invasion of the eastern European country. Brazilians and immigrants, including a refugee, were present.
Holding a Georgian flag, artist David Didishvili says he was born in Abkhazia, a region with a Russian majority that was also occupied and recognized as independent by Moscow in the 1990s.
“The same forces that expelled me and my family when I was 11 years old are attacking Ukraine now. I came to support the demonstration because Ukraine and Georgia are sisters, we are experiencing the same problem. Russia follows 20th century rules, wants to control other countries.”
Russia invaded Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday (24).
During an act in São Paulo, protesters chanted slogans and asked for “Out, Putin”.
Russian plastic artist Fiodor Pavlov Andreevich says he is ashamed of his country and Putin’s actions. In the opening of the Masp (Museum of Art of São Paulo), Andreevich hugs the Ukrainian Oxana Bergamo, 47. “You can’t go into a neighboring country and make this mess. You can’t treat an independent country like that.”
He claims he has friends who demonstrated against the war in Moscow and were arrested. “We all have Ukraine to think about. I’m talking to a lot of friends and people in my extended family who live there. They’ve been on the Kiev subway for 40 hours, no water, no toilet, no place to sleep, they have babies. Yeah. a lot of suffering.”
Polish Kasia Patyra, 38, has not been able to contact her friends in Ukraine since the invasion began. “I haven’t heard from them. I’m from eastern Poland, from a city 80 km away from the border, so we know people who live in Ukraine. I’m shocked, sad. When Crimea was invaded it was already a shock, but this time was more aggressive”, he says.
For Brazilian Celso Roberto Pereira Filho, who lives in Ukraine for half the year, what happened was a surprise. “I didn’t believe there would be anything, everyone told me to go back to Brazil and I ended up going back. I didn’t think they would invade until two days ago.” He also says that he has managed to keep in touch with his friends and that he is worried because no man over the age of 18 can leave the country.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky banned all men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country. They must come forward to fight.
