Thousands of protesters in Paris for Ukraine with shouts of “Murderer Putin!”

Thousands of people gathered this Saturday in the center of Paris in support of Ukraine to ask for the end of the war with many messages against the president Russian and a screaming proclamation that dominated all others: “Murderer Putin!”

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The call in the Place de la République coincided with other demonstrations that had also been organized in various cities in France, such as Bayonne, Clermont Ferrand or Amiens.

In the messages on the banners, which were mixed with Ukrainian flags, there were many to call for an end to the war but also to condemn Putin as responsible.

The Ukrainians present made more concrete demands to the international community, for example to send weapons to those fighting against the Russian invasion. And very particularly for a no-fly zone to be declared in the airspace of Ukraine to prevent Russian bombing.

An option totally excluded by NATO in the face of the risk of a direct confrontation with Russia and an extension of the war to the rest of Europe, despite the insistence of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who criticizes the allies for having left them alone.

The march in Paris was attended by two candidates from the left for the French presidential elections next month, the environmentalist Yannick Jadot and the socialist Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris.

There were also representatives from other political parties, in particular from The Republic on the Move (LREM) of French President Emmanuel Macron, and from The Republicans, such as former minister Rachida Dati.

All of them initially paraded behind the same banner that read: “Support for the Ukrainian resistance”, with the colors of that country.

Asked about Kiev’s request for NATO to declare a no-fly zone in Ukraine, Jadot acknowledged that, on the one hand, “it is a legitimate claim” by Zelensky, but “it raises a number of problems” because it would make the other countries of the Atlantic Alliance contending with Russia.

In his opinion, “the priority” is that the European Council, which meets in Versailles next Thursday and Friday, study the possibility of imposing an embargo on Russian gas, an issue that has been ruled out for the time being due to the enormous dependence they have some central and eastern EU countries.

The environmental leader also called on Macron to demand that the French giant TotalEnergies abandon all its activities in Russia, because in the current situation it is an “accomplice” of the Putin regime and its actions.

TotalEnergies, under pressure from the French government, announced last Tuesday that it will not make any investment in new projects in Russia, but has given no sign of wanting to leave Russia, which represents between 3% and 5% of its global income.

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Source: Elcomercio

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