BRUSSELS. “Cut the Russian oil”, “close our sky”. Ukrainians are asking EU leaders for energy sanctions against Russia, and the closure of Ukrainian airspace as a firm response to the Russian aggressor. Hundreds of Ukrainian citizens shouted their slogans outside the entrance of the European Council headquarters, covering a segment of the roundabout overlooked by the EU institutions with two-tone Ukrainians. For security reasons, the police forces placed them further away from the entrance to the Council, but in any case under the headquarters of the EU External Action Service, of which the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy is responsible. EU security. A composed, orderly event, without clashes or tensions, organized to keep attention on the extremely topical issue and the subject of debate by the Twenty-seven.
Those present show a billboard in which they ask to save Mariupol from the Russian attack, to help the regular army of Kiev. And then, “you give us weapons, we will take action.” Many requests from the civilian population present in Brussels, including a surge of pride on the part of NATO and of those EU countries that are part of it. “Born, be brave like the Ukrainians,” another banner displayed calling for more decisive action from the West. Because there is the impression that the former Soviet republic that Putin claims as his can only be the beginning. “If Ukraine falls, the whole of Europe will fall.”
Among the many blue and yellow flags of Ukraine, there are also many white-red-white horizontal striped flags, the one in use in independent Belarus after the collapse of the USSR, and today only waved for anti-government demonstrations. Opposition to Alexander Lukashenko’s regime joins the Ukrainians’ protest in calling for the system created by the leaders of Russia and Belarus to be undermined.