The Ukrainian community in Portugal will hold a rally to commemorate the anniversary of the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) in Kherson Region, said Pavlo Sadokha, Vice-President of the Ukrainian World Congress and President of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal, RTP Notícias reports.
The rally will take place in Lisbon on June 5 at 7:00 PM in front of the Russian embassy. The community emphasizes that Russia is responsible for the largest environmental disaster in Europe in the last decade and must pay for the crime of ecocide.
The Union of Ukrainians in Portugal has announced that rallies are set to take place in Berlin, Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, and Warsaw. These rallies aim to expose the truth behind the catastrophic events that resulted in the flooding of 80 settlements, the deaths of numerous civilians (with the exact toll undetermined due to many affected areas being under occupation), and significant damage to biodiversity in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine has experienced substantial environmental damage, losing between 35% to 40% of its freshwater reserves and 11,000 hectares of forest. Additionally, significant pollution has impacted the Dnipro River and the Black Sea. “The rally will gather, in particular, Ukrainian youth, several representatives of whom are from the region affected by the disaster – the largest man-made catastrophe in Europe in the last ten years, which qualifies as ecocide,” Sadokha said.
Protesters will call for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets and the allocation of funds for the protection and reconstruction of Ukraine, particularly the territories affected by ecocide.
“Youth want to remind European societies, especially ahead of the European Parliament elections scheduled for Sunday, that the main environmental threat to Europe now is the Russian Federation, which continues to wage war against Ukraine,” Sadokha said.
Russian military blew up the Kakhovka HPP on June 6, 2023. The disaster triggered an ecocide.
Cover: open sources
