Ukraine: Sunak, Starmer, Johnson and Khan mark invasion anniversary
What started as a solemn vigil of hundreds snowballed into a thousand-strong rally chanting in unison. To mark the first anniversary of Russia’s war against Ukraine and its people, the Ukrainian Social Club made sure the Russian embassy were aware of the crimes their regime had committed.
Ukrainians are unlikely to ever forget the date of February 24. “Heartbroken but Unbroken” – an event orchestrated by the Ukrainian Social Club – was in part designed to make sure the Russian perpatrators never do either.
Protests against Moscow’s aggression have occured frequently in London ever since Russia annexed Ukraine in 2014. Over the past year of full-scale conflict, the Club claims people have been outside Downing Street for their cause every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Ukrainian Social Club at 154 Holland Park Avenue has undergone a transformation of purpose over the past year. Formerly just a restaurant, bar and gathering space for the community, it has since got on a war footing. The space now serves as a nerve-centre for aid work in Ukraine and protests in the UK.
Many of the people planning to attend on Friday were doubtless fresh from the gathering in Trafalgar Square the night before – on the eve of the anniversary – during which Oscar-winning actress Dame Helen Mirren read a poem, ending with: “Peace for Ukraine, democracy for Ukraine and freedom for Ukraine.”
Members of the Ukrainian clergy led prayers for the victims (Image: Nina Kropotkine-Watson)
The statue of Volodymyr in Holland Park was erected in 1988 (Image: Nina Kropotkine-Watson)
Proceedings began with an ecumenical memorial service at the statue of St. Volodymyr on the corner of Holland Park. The gentle piano music that had greeted early arrivals was cut at 4pm sharp by a cry of “Slava Ukraini!” from Natalia Ravyluk, the British-Ukrainian organiser for the London Euromaidan community group.
By the time things got underway, the crowd of at least 300 had spilled onto nearby pavements as cars darted in between. All in Ukrainian, three clergymen led the tribute to the victims of the war. As the light faded, all that could be heard from the listening crowd was the fluttering of Ukrainian flags.
The next speaker thanked those in the UK for their generosity in opening their homes to refugees. He added: “Ukrainians suffered from two of the greatest tyrants of the 20th century: Stalin and Hitler. And now in the 21st, they suffer from a third. I shall not mention his name.”
A wreath laying ceremony then took place, led by Baroness Scott. Making specific mention of the 461 children who had perished in the conflict, she said: “My prayers are with you all.” Conservative MP for Kensington and Chelsea Felicity Buchan was also present, declaring the people of her borough and the UK were “100% behind” the Ukrainians. She added: “We will not tire, we will be there to the end.”
The Ukrainian national anthem signalled the end of the service. As the rain fell, the half-mile procession up Holland Park Avenue to the Russian embassy began. Thanks to a last-minute concession from the Metropolitan Police – who were duly thanked – half of the busy London throughfare was closed off for the march.
READ MORE: Street outside Russian Embassy renamed ‘Kyiv Road’
The procession from the Holland Park vigil took over half of the avenue (Image: Nina Kropotkine-Watson)
A 30-foot long Ukrainian flag travelled up the hill in the arms of protesters (Image: Nina Kropotkine-Watson)
In orderly yet noisy fashion, the throng of crowdmembers scaled the hill. Electric candles were handed out by volunteers, and a 30-foot Ukrainian flag was unfurled and carried amongst the marchers.
The beat of the procession was punctuated by chants of “Russia is a terrorist state!” Officials wearing high-visibility vests repeated the cry through megaphones. With every step towards the embassy the cries grew louder.
Amongst the Ukrainian flags were those of embattled peoples around the world, from Iran to Armenia. The collection of nationalities in the crowd out to support Ukraine was broad.
Alison Cameron from Aberdeen had been sent to analyse soil samples in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster more than thirty years ago. “I have felt a bond with Ukraine ever since,” she said. That bond had brought her there that day.
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“461 children killed in Ukraine, still want to negotiate?” (Image: Ollie Corfe)
Right on schedule, the Russian embassy came into view at half past five. The sheer number of protesters that have now joined the mob are, however, a problem – there isn’t space for everyone. The rally against Russia – much like Putin’s attempt to take Kyiv in a lightening strike a year ago – has been held up by logistics.
The road beneath everyone’s feet still bears the blue and yellow paint of Led By Donkey’s symbolic gesture the day before. The Met are forced to sacrifice half of the street for the duration of the rally – they will not be moved.
Like a seasoned musical headliner, Ms Ravyluk made sure her audience is all there and can hear. The Ukrainian National anthem blares out once again, this time just beneath the windows of the Russian embassy. “We have to remind terrorist embassy that this building is full of terrorists! They have to be punished in front of the whole world!” she shouts, loud enough for all of West London to hear.
A full 12 months of war had made Ukrainians “10 years older but a hundred years wiser,” she said.
The Ukrainian Social Club’s Fegur Kuliak then took centre stage and said, looking out over the crowd: “We can see the majestic and the beauty of democracy!” The Kremlin had “subjugated” the Russian people he claims, before kicking off a chant of “Russia get out of Ukraine!” He ends by reminding the crowd that a year ago, 141 UN-member countries denounced Russia’s invasion.
Single-file traffic spliced the protest in front of the Russian embassy in two (Image: Ollie Corfe)
The next speaker lamented the destruction the invasion has brought to his home country, but remains – characteristically of Ukrainians – defiant: “We can live without electricity. We can live without Russia.”
A video reel of the devastation was projected onto a screen just in front of the embassy’s boundary wall on Bayswater Road, backed by the whining noise of air raid sirens blaring at full volume from the speakers. A light came on on the top floor – the rally had got someone’s attention. “Russia is a terrorist state!” the crowd chanted again.
A representative of the Federation of Poles in Great Britain expressed her country’s sense of kinship with Ukraine. Poland has taken in over 1,500,000 refugees from their eastern neighbour over the past year – more than any other friendly nation.
Josef Midor was among the many Polish people at the rally. He said of the thrice-weekly protests that had taken place in support of Ukraine outside Downing Street over the past year, he had been to half. Asked why, he said: “Every day a small part of our freedom is cut off. We need religious freedom, freedom of expression, we need freedom. That is why I am here.”
Some of the speakers at the embassy rally were in their teens (Image: Ollie Corfe)
People from all over the world were drawn to the event. Abdul Malik Bakshi, a Chechen English-language blogger, said he was there to draw attention to 600,000 of his countrymen who died after being transported to Siberia by cattle train in 1944. Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov currently wields an autocratic grip on his home nation. “Ukraine are our allies, our freedom will be with Ukraine,” he said.
Cecilie Holter is a Norwegian journalist and writer. “I haven’t slept properly for a year,” she said. Currently writing a book on the multigenerational trauma of the Second World War, she has lived in London since the Eighties’ because of the Norwegian state’s refusal to take the Russian threat seriously.
She hoped the experience of Ukraine would at least “have woken us up from a dangerous slumber.”
The child victims of the war were also a major focus. A number of young singers and musical acts took the stage, a few of whom were overcome by emotion as they spoke of the atrocities they had witnessed at home.
