The world responded on tragedy of CharlieHebdo by a grandiose unity rally in solidarity: on January 11, 2015 more than one million people went into Parisian streets. About 40 leaders of states and international organizations took part in that action. It was for sure the first time after the Second World War so many people went into streetsin France. Huge crowd gathered not to celebrate, but to express the solidarity with the magazine’s editorial staff and the protest against the terror attacks. At the same time they showed determination to protect the European values and first of all afreedom of speech.
Russia was one of the few countries that actually ignored this tragedy expressing only formal sympathy for governmental authorities of France and nothing more. Mr. Putin didn’t be present at the unity march and didn’t state his opinion publicly. Russian side was presented only by Mr. Lavrov.
However, it’s necessary to note that nevertheless Russian authorities reacted to terror attack in Paris, but in a special way: on January 11 two activists were arrested in Moscow. They had got some posters with the same slogans as on posters of the unity rally in Paris in that the head of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation took part.
But on January 13, 2015 the world was shaken by one moreterrible event that came from Ukraine. Senseless act of terrorism was committed near the Ukrainian town of Volnovakha. Following bombardment by the pro-Russian rebels to the Ukrainian check point 13 passengers of the regular bus werekilled and 16 people were injured.
In reply to brutal murder of civilian people – the majority of them were women – Ukrainians organized the action named “Je suis Volnovakha” appealing citizens on Sunday to take part in the unity march in solidarity and against the merciless and senseless war in Ukraine.
On January 18 the peace processions and public prayers were held in many Ukrainian cities: Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, Chernigov, Mariupol, Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Kirovograd, Lvov, Ivano-Frankovsk, Sumy, Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Poltava, Vinnitsa, Cherkassy, Zhitomir, Khmelnitsky, Ternopol, Exactly, Chernovtsy, Uzhgorod, Lutsk and other cities.
At the unity march in Kiev more than 10 thousand participants gathered in memory of victims. In Lvov there were about 10 thousand. 2 thousand went into streets in Kharkov and Kramatorsk. In Severodonetsk more than thousand local residents and immigrants from the occupied areas participated in the actions. In Melitopol the unity march was supported by the Crimean Tatars. People in different cities of Ukraine went into the streets with the Ukrainian flags and posters with slogans “I am Volnovakha”, “I am Donbas”, “I am Crimea”, “Stop Russian terror in Ukraine!”. Whole Ukraine said strong “No” to Mr. Putin and pro-Russian rebels.
Not only Ukrainian people were shaken by senseless tragedy. On January18 citizens of Great Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria, Argentina, Portugal, Australia, Canada and other world countries expressed their solidarity with Ukraine. They came to Ukrainian embassies to express sympathy and support for the Ukrainian people and to pray for victims of that tragedy.
But some people in Moscow didn’t keep aloof and joined the action against senseless war, in which guiltless civilians have been killed. Despite the threat of arrests and repressions there were daredevils who didn’t be afraid to express solidarity with Ukraine. To Ukrainian embassy in Russia several tens of people came to support Ukrainians. Participants held paper’s sheets with inscription “I am Volnovakha!”. People lighted the icon lamps in the memory of victims of terror attacks, read verses of Taras Shevchenko and tied yellow- blue ribbons on a diplomatic representative office’s fence. These actions of activists were accompanied by barracking of Putin supporters who named participants the traitors and chanted “Maidan will not go through!”
From its part the Russian governmental authorities completely falsified information about tragedy in Volnovakha put the blame on Ukraine. The First Russian TV channel announced that Ukraine organized this terror attack against local population intentionally in order to break down the negotiations in “Norman format” and to foster them in “Geneva format” involving the USA. Russian propagandists asserted that Ukraine has broken down the peace agreements on purpose to solve the conflict in a military way. The Russian propaganda machine is extending such nonsense despite forcible proofs of rebels’ guilt and the OSCE conclusions that bus was stricken by missiles from territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists. This fact was recognized by the whole progressive world.Nevertheless, Russia continues to justify and support separatists in the East of Ukraine.
But, it would be possible to name these people separatists until they expressed the requirements in a peaceful way. So, when they took up arms and began to kill civilians then these people became terrorists by all means. But Russia arms them and finances!
Participants of the unity march called all civilized world to react to events in the East of Ukraine, where number of victims of terror attacks is estimated at thousands. Ukrainian people demand to estimate properly the actions of pro-Russian rebels and to recognize so called Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic as terrorist organizations and Russia as the state that supports terrorism.
