As foreign diplomats stationed in Ukraine furtively made their way to the Russia Day reception organized by Ambassador Zurabov in his Kyiv suburb residence they were unpleasantly surprised. Their cars slowed down and then sped on as they had to go though an imitation of a military checkpoint, look at bodies covered with blood-soaked sheets and drive though pools of blood leaving bloody traces on the road.
“Crimea is occupied”, “Attention, this is blood”, “Russia devours Crimea”, “You are going to shake hands with murderers” read banners on the road and in the hands of activists from Crimea, Donbass and Kyiv protesting by the roadside. Portraying Russia’s “bloody hospitality” the activist offered sandwiches with animal intestines to the guests of the diplomatic mission.
None of the guests seemed to be willing to stop and take a bite.
Although the Russian embassy attempted to keep the celebration out of the public eye as much as possible in democratic societies secrets are hard to keep. And Ukraine is a democratic country. Which means that the Ukrainian citizens do care about their newly found dignity.
The protesters were outraged that the aggressor was hosting a birthday party for its foreign guests just outside the capital of the country it had attacked and whose territory it keeps on occupying. And even more so that diplomats from foreign countries accepted the aggressor’s invitation rather than holding it responsible for its actions.
“We wanted to remind them what we Ukrainians know for sure. Donbas has been ruined due to the actions of the Russian Federation. People keep dying due to actions of the Russian Federation. Crimea is under occupation and people there keep getting abducted and tortured exclusively due to the actions of the Russian Federation. It has to be kept responsible for what it is doing,” Serhiy Mokrenyuk, an activist who had been forced to flee occupied Crimea said.
“It is so inhuman to express deep concern and then come and eat sandwiches from the hands of the aggressor at the territory of the country where the war it had started is going on. I had not been too concerned about this event until I saw the number of cars with diplomatic and Kyiv plates going to this bloody celebration. Even hail did not stop them.” said Yulia Krasilnikova, an IDP from Donbass and an activist of Vostok-SOS, an organization helping other IDPs.
The hail that came down that day appeared rather symbolic. Hail of Grad in Russian is that name of the multiple rocket launch systems Russia keeps supplying to the militants in Eastern Ukraine in violation of the Mink agreement. “It seems, people won’t understand that they are accepting food from murderers until the hail from Russia rocket launchers comes down on their houses”, Olelsandra Dvoretska, a Vostok-SOS activist from Crimea commented.
According to the UN data, over 9300 people, primarily civilians, have died in the conflict in the East and over 21 thousand have been injured. 1,7 million have been displaced. Eighteen Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian are held in illegal detention in Crimea, searches and arrests continue.
June 12 is celebrated in Russia as the day of birth of the Russian Federation. It marks the day Russia declared its sovereignty in 1990.