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[DaffyVina]

8:02
President Biden 'made a difficult situation more difficult'
Video content
Video caption: US President Biden spoke in Warsaw on SaturdayUS President Biden spoke in Warsaw on Saturday

US President Joe Biden's comment that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power" has prompted strong criticism from veteran US diplomat Richard Haass.

The comments "made a difficult situation more difficult and a dangerous situation more dangerous", tweeted Mr Haass, who is president of the US Council on Foreign Relations.

"That is obvious," he added. "Less obvious is how to undo the damage, but I suggest his chief aides reach their counterparts & make clear the US is prepared to deal with this Russian government."

Mr Haass returned to the subject after the White House qualified President Biden's remarks, saying: "The White House walk back of @POTUS regime change call is unlikely to wash.

"Putin will see it as confirmation of what he’s believed all along. Bad lapse in discipline that runs risk of extending the scope and duration of the war."


8:42
A dangerous escape from Ukraine on the 'Rescue Express'

Fergal Keane -BBC News, Lviv

Ten million people have fled their homes in Ukraine because of the Russian invasion.

Most head west to the relative safety of cities like Lviv - and many continue onwards to neighbouring countries.

After nearly a month reporting on refugees, I have taken to calling this extraordinary evacuation the "Rescue Express".

It has come at great human cost: 33 railway staff have been killed. Tracks and stations have been bombed.

Yet, millions of Ukrainians have taken trains from as far south as Odessa on the Black Sea, from Kharkiv close to the Russian border in the north-east, from the Donbas and from Kyiv, and numerous smaller stations in between.

I met some of those who took the 91/92 train between Kyiv and Lviv.

We wait among the anxious and exhausted, the families calming scared children, the elderly woman wrapped in a blanket and pulling a suitcase. She looks as if she cannot possibly walk another step. But she will trudge forward when the all-clear is given.

This is not a place of options. Go forward, or run the risk of the war catching up with you.


9:23
Grain exports getting worse by the day - Ukraine's agriculture minister

Ukraine's new agriculture minister Mykola Solskyi says the country's ability to export grainis getting worse by the day and would only improve if the war with Russia ends.

Speaking in a televised briefing, Solskyi says Ukraine, one of the biggest grain exporters in the world, would normally be exporting 4-5 million tonnes of grain per month - a volume that has fallen to just a few hundred thousand tonnes.

"The impact (on global markets) is direct, dramatic and large. And it continues. Every day the situation will become more and more difficult," he says.

[DaffyVina]

Article from the Guardian Newspaper - Guardian.com
Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer
Sun 27 Mar 2022 08.00 BST
‘Our voices are louder if we stay’: Russian anti-war activists refuse to flee
Thousands of people have left the country but a small group are determined to keep challenging Vladimir Putin despite the risks


Oleg Orlov of the human rights group Memorial poses at an exhibition devoted to political repression in Moscow on 15 November 2021. Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images

Despite reaching one of the darkest moments in more than 40 years as a dissident and human rights activist, Oleg Orlov says that he has no plans to flee Russia. “I made a decision a long time ago that I want to live and die in Russia, it’s my country,” Orlov told the Observer. “Even though it’s never been so bad.”

That’s saying something for Orlov, who can recall printing homemade anti-war posters in the late 1970s to protest against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan or in support of Poland’s Solidarnost movement, and was an observer and negotiator during the bloody war in Chechnya in the 1990s.

He has been arrested three times for holding pickets since late February, when Russian troops launched an assault on Ukraine. And he doesn’t rule out a prison term in his future.

“I understand the high likelihood of a criminal case against me and my colleagues,” he said. “But we have to do something … even if it is just to go out with a picket and speak honestly about what is happening.”

Tens of thousands of Russians have fled the country since it invaded Ukraine, fearing a wave of government repression and a possible closure of Russia’s borders similar to what happened in the Soviet Union.

However, a devoted, diverse cadre of anti-war activists have stayed behind, continuing to protest, post online , fundraise and organise opposition to Vladimir Putin’s war against their neighbour.

“I made a decision that I’m not going. That was my decision,” said Ilya Yashin, 38, a veteran street and political activist who also serves as a municipal deputy in Moscow. “I understand all the risks. I understand what it could mean for me.

“But it seems to me that anti-war voices sound louder and more convincing if the person remains in Russia,” he said.

Yashin has continued to speak out against the war publicly, filming streams on his YouTube channel that reach 1.5 million viewers or more.

He estimated that 80% of his friends and colleagues, many in opposition politics or journalism, had left the country. “I think I have more friends in Georgia and in Vilnius now than in Moscow,” he said.

There was no judgment of those who had left, he said, while he looked on those who stayed with “great sympathy, great respect”. Through his activism, he also hoped to show that many Russians do not support this war.

“What’s the point of doing politics in Russia if you’re not willing to protest against war at such a historic moment?” he said.

The danger to activists like Orlov and Yashin is real. The government has already opened nearly a dozen cases into alleged “fakes” about the military, which can carry a sentence of up to 15 years, and has made more than 15,000 arrests of protesters.

“There are a lot of people asking for advice about whether to leave,” said Pavel Chikov, the head of Agora, a Russian human rights group based in Kazan, Tartarstan. “I tell all of them that if you’re thinking about leaving, you have to leave and watch the Titanic from the [rescue] boat, not on board.”

“If people are hesitating, they will blame themselves if they stay and can’t leave later,” he said.

The jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Photograph: Pavel Golovkin/AP

Chikov compared the situation to that of the condition for activists inside Chile under Augusto Pinochet, or in Turkey after the recent failed coup attempt. “There’s no understanding of how far or how deep this can go,” he said.

In Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman has been a fixture in local politics for two decades. The former mayor and anti-narcotics activist is a rare official in the regions to express openly his support of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny. A month after calling the war an act of “betrayal” by Russia against Ukraine, he continues to hold open-door consultations with local residents, a hallmark of his social activism in Russia’s fourth-largest city.

“I am almost 60, I lived my whole life in Russia, where the hell am I going to go?” Roizman said at the weekend.

“Many people see me as an example – they are staying because they see that I haven’t left,” he said. “My presence gives them the assurance that everything will be normal one day. And I know I am not alone in the country – there are still many normal people left.”

Roizman said he doesn’t judge the many who have fled but that he needs to be able to “look myself in the mirror”. “I now understand how the anti-fascists felt during the Third Reich,” he said. “But I can’t flee, it is unacceptable for me to do that.”

Others reasons for staying are diverse. Some worried about family members, and others were concerned that once they left they would probably never be able to come back.

Lucy Shtein, a municipal deputy and member of Pussy Riot, said she felt she could be more effective as an activist outside Russia, but that she could not leave because she is awaiting sentencing for promoting a pro-Navalny protest.

“I always wanted to stay in Russia until the very end because I knew that once I leave I will not be able to return for a long time,” she said.

Dmitry Ivanov, a pro-democracy activist and computer science student who runs the “Protest at MGU” [Moscow State University] Telegram channel, also said he feared that if he leaves, “then there will be no way back”.

The IT student would probably be “welcomed abroad”, and said the police had “shown a lot of interest in me”. But he insisted that he had not done anything illegal, just “encourage others to go out and protest peacefully”.

“That is allowed by law,” he said. “I don’t think I should be afraid or run away. This is my country.”

[DaffyVina]

Article from the Guardian/ Observer Newspaper -guardian.com
Vanessa Thorpe
Sun 27 Mar 2022 07.00 BST
[b]Alexei Ratmansky: Russian cultural figures must oppose war in Ukraine
Distinguished ballet choreographer takes issue with views of his friend, dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov[/b]

Photo: Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky left a ballet production in Moscow on news of the invasion of Ukraine.
Photograph: Presley Ann/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images

Russian artists and performers must not stay silent about the war, according to one of the world’s leading ballet choreographers, Alexei Ratmansky.

The Russian-born former artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, who left a new production in Moscow on news of the invasion, was responding to Mikhail Baryshnikov’s call not to punish cultural and sporting figures for failing to stand up to Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Speaking to the Observer on 20 March , Baryshnikov, the actor and ballet star, launched a fundraising drive to support Ukraine. But he also said Russian stars who do not speak out should not be targeted by the west. In contrast, Ratmansky, an admirer and friend of Baryshnikov, believes there is no excuse for not actively opposing the war.

Posting on Facebook, the choreographer said he found it “hard to agree with Misha”. He pointed out that in 2014 more than 500 well-known Russian figures in the arts, including major ballet personalities, signed a letter of support for Putin’s annexation of Crimea.

“After this letter,” Ratmansky wrote, “every performance or any public action of these 500 could be seen as an act of propaganda. Especially those who have gone on to perform in the west. These people have made a strong political statement supporting their president’s unlawful actions. They are playing politics and therefore should be held responsible or at least asked serious questions.

“It is precisely because of the support of the most visible figures of Russian culture that Putin gained his unlimited power and now is using it against humanity in this bloody war that is destroying Ukraine.”

The choreographer, who grew up in Ukraine and has family in Kyiv, said there were dancers in Moscow who must realise that Russia is bombing cities and so should be held to account.

Ratmansky added: “It’s humiliating to think that dancers should only dance and concentrate on their art, ignoring what’s going on around them. It’s not only pretty legs they possess, they also have brains and hearts.

“The mass murder of innocent people in Ukraine is done in their name also, in the name of Great Russia of Culture that was so admired by the whole world until very recently.”

Photo: Dancers from the American Ballet Theater perform Bernstein in Bubble, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky.
Photograph: MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images

Ratmanksy, who has a new job with the American Ballet Theater, premiered his ballet The Seasons in San Francisco this month and unfurled a Ukrainian flag over the stage. He is now in Munich preparing another opening night.

Putin spoke out on Friday against the “cancellation” of Russian stars in Europe, making an unlikely comparison with criticism of the writer JK Rowling from some trans rights campaigners. “Today they are trying to cancel a whole thousand-year culture, our people,” he said. “I am talking about the gradual discrimination against everything linked to Russia.”

Nevertheless, a growing number of cultural names in Russia are expressing disgust at the war. Among the best known is Olga Smirnova, a principal soloist at the Bolshoi, who announced 10 days ago she has joined the Dutch National Ballet because of the war in Ukraine.

This weekend the Russian news agency Tass reported that Putin has asked the leading conductor and Kremlin loyalist Valery Gergiev to consider taking over artistic control at both the Bolshoi and its St Petersburg rival, the Mariinsky Ballet, formerly the Kirov. Gergiev, who lost prestigious work in Europe due to his support for Putin, reportedly said it would be a good idea “to coordinate efforts” at the two theatre companies.

But it is not just artistic talent that may be temporarily lost to Russia. Valuable Russian works of art now on show in museums around Europe cannot be sent back to Moscow and St Petersburg because of bans imposed on international flights.

The priceless Morozov collection of European and Russian art left Russia to go on show in Paris only after the personal approval of Putin, reports the Moscow Times. The works, which include masterpieces by Gauguin, Renoir and Cézanne, and Russian paintings by Malevich and Goncharova, belong to the State Hermitage in St Petersburg, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the State Tretyakov Gallery.

The whole collection was scheduled to open at the Pushkin museum this summer.

[DaffyVina]

Article from the Guardian/ Observer Newspaper - guardian.com
Daniel Boffey in Lviv and Shaun Walker in Kyiv
Sat 26 Mar 2022 14.05 GMT

Russian soldiers release Ukraine town’s mayor and agree to leave after protests
Russian forces agreed to leave town of Slavutych if those with arms handed them over to the mayor

Photo :Demonstrators stage of protest in Slavutych
Caption: Stun grenades and overhead fire failed to disperse unarmed protesters on its main square on Saturday.
Photograph: Obtained By Reuters

A mayor in a Ukrainian town occupied by Russian forces has been released from captivity and the soldiers have agreed to leave after a mass protest by residents.

Slavutych, a northern town close to the Chernobyl nuclear site, was taken by Russian forces but stun grenades and overhead fire failed to disperse unarmed protesters on its main square on Saturday.

The crowd demanded the release of mayor Yuri Fomichev, who had been taken prisoner by the Russian troops.

Attempts by Russian troops to intimidate the growing protest failed and on Saturday afternoon Fomichev was let go by his captors.

An agreement was made that the Russians would leave the town if those with arms handed them over to the mayor with a dispensation for those with hunting rifles.

Fomichev told those protesting that the Russians had agreed to withdraw “if there are no [Ukrainian] military in the city”.

The deal struck, the mayor said, was that the Russians would make a search for Ukrainian soldiers and arms and then depart. One Russian checkpoint outside the city would remain.

The incident highlights the struggle that Russian forces have faced even where they have had military victories.

Slavutych, population 25,000, sits just outside the so-called exclusion zone around Chernobyl – which in 1986 was the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. The plant itself was seized by Russian forces soon after the start of the 24 February invasion.

“The Russians opened fire into the air. They threw flash-bang grenades into the crowd. But the residents did not disperse, on the contrary, more of them showed up,” said Oleksandr Pavlyuk, a governor of the Kyiv region in which Slavutych sits.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s defence ministry claimed that Russia was “trying to intensify the activities of sabotage and reconnaissance groups in Kyiv in order to destabilise the socio-political situation, disrupt the system of public and military administration”.

Western officials have said that Vladimir Putin had planned to take Ukraine’s capitals within days of announcing his “special military operation” on 24 February but had come across unexpectedly fierce resistance.

While the occasional blast can be heard in Kyiv from fighting to the west of the city, the centre has been calm for most of the past fortnight.

“To start with they wanted blitzkrieg, 72 hours to get control [of] Kyiv and much of Ukraine, and it all fell apart,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the lead negotiator in talks with Russia, in an interview in Kyiv.

“They had poor operational planning, and they realised it was advantageous for them to surround cities, cut off the main supply routes, and force people there to have a deficit of food, water and medicines,” he said, describing the siege of Mariupol as a tactic to sow psychological terror and exhaustion.

However, Podolyak expressed scepticism over a claim from the Russian defence ministry on Friday that Moscow’s forces would now focus mainly on the Donbas area in east Ukraine.

“Of course I don’t believe that. They don’t have interests in Donbas. Their main interests are Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and the south – to take Mariupol, and to close the Azov Sea … we see them regrouping and preparing more troops to send in,” he said.

[DaffyVina]

11:54
Russia aiming to split Ukraine in two, Ukrainian military intelligence says
Russia is trying to split Ukraine in two to create a Moscow-controlled region after failing to take over the whole country, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence has said.

Reuters news agency reports Kyrylo Budanov saying in a statement that Russia is looking to "create North and South Korea in Ukraine," adding his country will soon launch guerrilla warfare in Russian-occupied territory.


12:39
Red lights and painted arrows raise suspicions of Russian saboteurs
Image caption: Elderly people are among patrols at night, asking to check the documents of people they encounter
A month into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there are fears that Russian saboteurs may be operating within the country. But how much is fact and based on credible intelligence, and how much is mass hysteria fuelled by social media?

Bohdan Mylko, a 22-year-old engineer found out the hard way. Police showed up at his door, on the northern edge of Odesa, asking about a red light in his bedroom window.
"It's paranoia, based on fake news about red lights being a sign to the Russians. I had to go to the police station and get my documents checked, make a statement, and get my photo taken," he told the BBC's Andrew Harding in Odesa.

Out in the street, there are nightly patrols by concerned citizens who stop people they encounter, to check documents.
Capt Volodymir Kalina from the Odesa police says that it is a fact that there are Russian agents and Ukrainian citizens working "to distract us, to make us pay attention to the wrong places - to clear us from one part of the city so they can carry out their work in another area".
He acknowledges that there is disinformation too.

Analysts say it is true that Ukrainians or Russians are providing information to the Russian military.

Ukrainian media has broadcast numerous videos showing police arresting alleged Russian saboteurs.
President Volodymyr Zelensky was also shown handing out medals to a group of police security agents who apprehended suspected Russian agents.

But it is worth noting, writes the BBC's Andrew Harding, that for all the fear fuelled by such reports, the evidence suggests that a few isolated Russian cells have, so far, been remarkably unsuccessful.


Posted at 13:1013:10
Escalation of words could prevent ceasefire, says Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron is warning against the verbal escalation of the war in Ukraine, a day after his American counterpart Joe Biden described Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a butcher and said he shouldn't be allowed to remain in power.

Macron told French media the goal was for a ceasefire in Ukraine and then the withdrawal of Russian troops.
He said this wouldn't be possible with an escalation through words or actions.

US authorities have denied Biden was calling for regime change in Russia following his unscripted comments during a visit to Poland.

Macron has maintained communication with the Russian president throughout the Ukraine crisis and said he would speak to Putin in the next two days to organise the evacuation of civilians from the heavily bombarded port city of Mariupol.

[DaffyVina]

13:39
Photos from scene of Lviv missile strike
Photojournalists on the ground in Ukraine have taken these striking images showing the aftermath of Saturday's attack in Lviv.

A fuel storage facility and a factory were hit by Russian cruise missiles, resulting in a raging inferno and thick plumes of black smoke.

The governor of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyi, said five people were injured in the attack.

Firefighters weatring special protective clothing tackle the blaze at the fuel storage facility in Lviv after a missile strike
Copyright: Reuters


Firefighters tackle the blaze at the fuel storage facility in Lviv after a missile strike
Copyright: Reuters


Firefighters continue to damp down the scene of an attack at the fuel storage facility in Lviv
Copyright: Reuters


Ukrainian firefighters at the scene of an attack in Lviv
Copyright: Reuters

[DaffyVina]

14:48
Mariupol residents 'taken' to Russian-held areas or Russia itself

Wyre Davies- BBC News, Dnipro

A resident of the besieged southern port city of Mariupol has told the BBC she, and hundreds of other residents, were given “no option” but to leave for Russian-held parts of Ukraine or Russia itself.

Asked whether residents of the city have been “forcibly evacuated” by occupying Russian forces, Irina says: “Yes, I would say so… If we are completely honest, all of us were taken forcibly.”

Irina, a Red Cross volunteer in Mariupol who was allowed to keep her documents, says everyone from the eastern side of the city were taken to the unrecognised Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) - a Russian-occupied territory Moscow recognises as independent.

Once there, she says, people had to decide whether to stay in the DPR or go to Russia.

Although she and her daughter were allowed to go and stay with relatives in Russia, Irina says “some elderly people that I know and whom I met at the distribution point did not know where they were headed and what for".

"They thought they would be able to stay in Rostov for a couple of months… and then maybe come back to Mariupol. Instead, they were taken to Samara [in Russia]. They said they had no idea what to do there, and the accommodation there is provided only for two weeks.”

Mariupol has been hit hard by Russian attacks, with thousands of residents forced to flee the city after water and electricity supplies were cut off.


16:11
Russian units leaving to replenish personnel - Ukraine army
As Russia's offensive in Ukraine stalls, the Ukrainian army says Russian units are being pulled out of northern Ukraine into Belarus - an ally of Russia - in order to replenish personnel and supplies.

Writing on Facebook, the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces says Russian ranks needed rotation.

Many units have suffered heavy losses and are in dire need of food, fuel and ammunition.

Wounded soldiers are also being evacuated to Belarus, which is just north of fierce fighting around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.


16:36
Next round of Ukraine-Russia talks in Turkey - Ukrainian negotiator
The next round of face-to-face negotiations between Ukraine and Russia will take place in Turkey, starting tomorrow, one of the Ukrainian negotiators says.

David Arakhamia says on Facebook the talks will take place from Monday to Wednesday.

Ukraine described previous talks with Russia since the start of the invasion last month as "very difficult".

The first round of talks between the two teams of negotiators took place in Belarus, which is Russia's ally, but Turkey has played a part in the diplomatic attempts to end the war, with the Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish foreign ministers meeting in Antalya earlier this month.

[DaffyVina]

18:03
Any fake referendums in occupied Ukraine null and void - Ukraine MFA
Earlier the separatist leader of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine said a referendum could be held soon on joining Russia, according to Reuters news agency citing the self-proclaimed republic's news outlet, in which it quoted its leader.

Now Ukraine's foreign ministry has said any "fake" referendums held in occupied parts of Ukraine will be "null and void".

Writing on Twitter, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, said "no country in the world will ever recognize the forceful change of Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.

"Instead, Russia will facе an even stronger international response, further deepening its isolation."

Three days before ordering troops into Ukraine on 24 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states, though the rest of the world considers them part of Ukraine.


18:26
Russian regulator warns media over Zelensky interview
Will Vernon -BBC News, Moscow

The Russian state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has issued a warning to Russian media over an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The regulator warned the press they must not publish the interview and that “an investigation has been started in order to identify the level of responsibility and what response will be taken” in relation to the media that carried out the interview.

Roskomnadzor notes some of the media outlets that conducted the interview are designated “foreign agents” in Russia.

Earlier, liberal Russian outlet Meduza announced it had interviewed Zelensky, along with Dozhd TV and Russian newspaper Kommersant. Meduza and Dozhd are both blocked in Russia and Dozhd has suspended all journalistic activities.

Russia has recently passed new laws restricting the way in which Russian media can report on the war in Ukraine.

The most stringent of the new laws, against disseminating "fakes" on the activities of the Russian Armed Forces, carries serious criminal charges of up to 15 years in prison.

[DaffyVina]

18:50
Relief and strain as mood changes in attacked Lviv
Zhanna Bezpiatchuk -BBC Ukrainian Service reporter

People in a bomb shelter under a historic building in Lviv
Copyright: EPA
Image caption: Nearly everybody made their way to Lviv's underground bomb shelters yesterday

“Russians want to cut me off from my home by this strike. No way!” - a young waitress in one of Lviv's restaurants drops a few words on her way to the next client.

She was checking on social media what exactly the Russian missiles hit in Lviv. It turned out her home is quite close to the oil storage facility that was attacked from the air.

That was the first massive strike on Lviv. After this attack the city expected one more. And even the least alarmist residents went to bomb shelters.

The next morning brought just a little relief and lots of strain.

Refugees sleeping in a gym in Lviv
Copyright: EPA
Image caption: Many refugees from other parts of Ukraine made their way to Lviv, where they've been staying in places such as this gym

“Many people in Lviv still believed that the first strike which happened a week ago was the exception and war is far away. Now the mental condition of people here changed. Nobody knows what to expect next. Nobody will trust the long silence without air alerts”, says Iryna Luniova, a director of one of Lviv's schools.

Her team of teachers helps refugees. Normally, they had to persuade them to go to shelters. After fleeing danger zones in the other regions these people felt safe in Lviv.

“I thought a lot that Russia won’t miss the chance to attack us in western Ukraine. And, finally, this worst scenario happened”, says Iryna.

The 15-year-old daughter of one of her colleagues had a stroke out of fear yesterday. Their family lives close to the attacked location. Lviv surgeons carried out a six-hour-long operation to save her life.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon one can see many families of local residents and refugees on a walk with their children in the Ivan Franko landscape park. And now the main question they all ask is whether it’s still safe enough to keep their kids in Lviv.

People in Lviv walk under a plume of black smoke
Copyright: Getty Images
Image Caption: Saturday's attacks changed the mood in a city that had felt like a comparatively safe haven

[DaffyVina]

19:38
300 pairs of shoes to commemorate Mariupol theatre victims

300 pairs of worn shoes have been placed along the banks of the Daube river in Budapest to commemorate the victims of the Mariupol theatre bombing in Ukraine
Copyright: Ukrainian Association 'Yednist'


People in Hungary have left 300 pairs of worn shoes on the banks of the Danube river in Budapest to commemorate the victims of those who died during the bombing of Mariupol's theatre on 16 March.

In a Facebook post, the organisers of the memorial said the shoes had been placed near the existing 'Shoes on the Danube Bank' memorial, which commemorates the massacre of Hungarian Jews during World War Two.

It wrote: "People of Europe have to take all possible and impossible measures to end this tragedy. Until that happens, new shoes will appear here".

Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba described his feelings of gratitude to the organisers of the memorial in a Facebook post, and said activists had been inspired by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's speech earlier this week to an EU summit in which he made reference to the Hungarian Jewish memorial.

Kuleba added, "history is repeating itself, right now, before our eyes. Therefore, it is not enough to sympathize now, we need to prove with concrete deeds that it is really 'Never again'."