Stop Russian Terror: Thousands rally in Warsaw, demanding more aid for Ukraine from EU

Activists demand that Ukraine’s partners donate more weapons systems to protect civilians, transfer Russia’s immobilized assets to be used in recovery, and further isolate Russia in the international arena, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"We organized this rally in the face of Russia's constant and massive shelling of Ukraine, which turned out to be most intense. This is terror against the civilian population of Ukraine. In this regard, today we’d like to address the European Union with specific demands: to protect civilians, to protect Ukrainians by providing Ukraine with air defense capabilities and F-16 jets immediately," Viktoria Pohrebniak, an activist with the Warsaw Euromaidan, told Ukrinform.

Stop Russian Terror campaign in Warsaw / Photo: Yuriy Banakhevych, Ukrinform

She emphasized that Ukraine defends European values and democracy, but for some reason the nation has not been seeing sufficient support from the EU in terms of weapons systems that would allow Kyiv to protect civilians.

Pohrebniak read out and handed over to the EC representation an appeal to the EU governing bodies, calling for the immediate assistance and further support to Ukraine.

The head of the Association of Ukrainians in Poland, Myroslav Skirka, in his comments to Ukrinform, noted that the war in Ukraine continues and is taking on increasingly tragic forms due to intensified missile attacks.

He noted with regret that the West is slowly becoming indifferent to the unfolding tragedy. He also emphasized that, unfortunately, Poland has also ceased to be an active partner that supports Ukraine, and in some respects it even blocks Ukraine's path to Europe and continued assistance to Kyiv.

"We are here today to say: this cannot be happening. This is not why we have been gathering in Poland since 2022, to waste it all because of the weird and incomprehensible policies of both the former and present Polish governments," Skirka stated.

The leader of the Warsaw Euromaidan, Natalia Panchenko, appealed to the EU leadership and Polish authorities to donate the much-needed capabilities to Ukraine to protect the civilian population, to expel Russian diplomats from Europe, and immediately transfer seized Russian assets to Ukraine so that the government could use that money to procure weapons and strengthen protection of civilians from Russia’s systemic terror.

Some acclaimed Polish public figures and politicians also attended the rally to support Ukraine, including ex-Mayor of Warsaw Marcin Swiencicki, a legendary figure from the Polish Solidarity movement Zbigniew Bujak, and many others.

Despite a cold snap on Monday, more than 2,500 people, including many children, gathered for the rally.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, several thousand activists in Berlin demanded that the German government donates Taurus long-range missiles and other weapons to Ukraine.