European cities witnessed popular protests calling for an end to military support for Ukraine, the abolition of Western sanctions against Russia, and making room for peaceful negotiation.
In the Swiss capital, Bern, demonstrators gathered in front of the parliament and government headquarters, calling for their country’s unconditional commitment to neutrality, preventing arms exports to Ukraine, and canceling the sanctions imposed on Russia.
Swiss media reported that about 3,000 people demanded that Switzerland adopt a policy of strict neutrality with regard to the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, stressing that the sanctions imposed on Russia should be abolished.
Thousands of demonstrators also took to the streets of the Spanish city of Bilbao in a rally in support of Russia, condemning NATO’s escalatory and war-fueling policies that forced Russia to launch its military operation in Ukraine.
Sputnik quoted the representative of the Spanish platform, which raises the slogan (No to NATO), as saying: “Russia has been striving since 2014 for peace, but the West leaves it no other choice, and for this reason we express our solidarity with Moscow.”
One of the organizers of the march also expressed his sympathy with the people of Donbass due to the practices they are subjected to by the Ukrainian authorities, pointing to the ongoing suffering due to the deteriorating economic situation in Europe, and blaming NATO for what is happening as it manipulates the European Union as if it were a puppet.
Participants in the demonstration carried the flags of Russia and the republics of Luhansk and Donetsk and raised them on the Bilbao City Council building.
Last February, the annual inflation rate in the Czech state, a member of the European Union and NATO, was 16.7 percent, with a population of about 10.5 million.
Inas Abdulkareem