“It saddens me to hear the news from Ukraine, it’s horrible. I wish I were there with my family, but we will just do everything we can here in Taiwan, as Ukrainians, to help our country as much as possible.”
Oleksandr, who is studying in Taiwan, was attending an impromptu demonstration outside the Russian representative office in Taipei, across from the World Trade Center on the busy intersection of Xinyi and Keelung roads on Friday afternoon, the day after Russian forces mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Almost 100 people gathered over the course of the afternoon starting from 2 p.m. News of the protest had spread through Twitter, university chat groups, and personal connections. Attendees were largely from Ukraine, Russia, Taiwan, and other European countries. One sign read simply “We’re All Ukrainians Today!”
Photo by Cat Thomas
Ukrainians in Taiwan react
Oleksandr held a sign in Ukrainian flag colors reading “Get out of my country”. He described his family as “physically safe, there’s a lot of anxiety of course. But I would say that they are holding very well, which inspires me actually…they are very strong.”
Lali, from Georgia, explained “I just feel really sad about what’s going on, I couldn’t stand what’s happening… so I came to support.” Lali has friends in Kyiv that she describes as running through a gauntlet of emotions including fear and anger.
Alex Khomenko spent three hours standing on the same corner the day before draped in the Ukrainian flag, and his tweet about returning today drew many more to the rally today. Khomenko is Ukrainian-American and has lived in the US since 1995 before moving to Taiwan with his family six months ago. Today his “Russia Out of Ukraine” sign was bilingual, with a Taiwanese parent from his child’s school having helped to provide the translation.
“My main purpose here is to show support from my country, hopefully make people think about what is going on,” Khomenko said.
He grew up in the east of Ukraine and describes his friends and classmates in Ukraine as “not feeling that great right now.”
“They are afraid, but they are not scared, they are just going to figure out how to protect themselves and their families, but nobody is running away. They believe that Ukraine is in the right here, and that Ukraine eventually will win”
“I feel what is going on is really unfair,” said another demonstrator, Hanna, “It should not have happened. Nobody expected it to happen. And I feel it’s not right.”
Most of Hanna’s family are still in Ukraine, scattered across various cities and she describes them as being unsure of what is happening and scared. While she is managing to keep in close contact with her family, she said she came to “this peaceful protest to say ‘No war. Stop the invasion.’ as that’s all I can do.”
Photo by Cat Thomas
Solidarity
Alex, from Russia, was holding a sign of the Ukrainian flag.
“I’m here because I strongly disagree with what is going on,” said Alex, “I was so shocked that I just asked my Ukrainian friends if there is anything like this happening so I can come because it it’s probably one of the few things I can do to at least try to change something, because I’m not in Russia now, but even people who are in Russia they cannot do much about it.”
Many protesters in Moscow and Saint Petersburg were taken away, although not all. Alex said that in smaller places in Russia where protests were held yesterday all the attendees were arrested.
Chiam Won Kang, a student from Malaysia, had come with his Taiwanese classmate Kai-Jie Kao. Both were anxious to show support for Ukraine with Chiam describing Russia’s “creating a war” as an injustice.
Kao first read about the invasion yesterday morning on social media, where he usually gets his news, and was anxious to show support for the human rights of Ukrainians.
“The condition of Ukraine is similar to Taiwan,” he added. “We are both under huge threat from big authoritarian countries.”
James, a student from China, held a sign urging Taiwanese to organize an anti-war social movement. “I came to support Ukraine and oppose the war caused by Putin,” said James.
The backside of his sign read “Dear Putin, Please speed up to kill yourself in bunker.” And “No Putin, No war” in Russian.
“It means Putin will have the same end as Hitler … so it’s a warning that what Putin has done, it’s a crime, he is guilty.”
Photo by Cat Thomas
Aaron from the Philippines came to show solidarity for the people of Ukraine as “a freedom loving people and democracy advocate.” He remarked that today is a national holiday in the Philippines to mark the ending of their own dictatorship. Aaron was attending with a Ukrainian friend, fellow Filipinos, and a Taiwanese classmate, Khun-liong Lim.
“I think it is so bad,” said Lim describing the invasion, “because Taiwanese people have been threatened by China for so many years. Everyone in Taiwan didn’t think the war was so close to our lives, but war is real in Europe now. So, I came here to support Ukraine and I want to show that we have to pay attention to China’s actions.”
Although Lim says that his friends rarely talk about politics in everyday life, he thinks most of them are taking notice of what is happening in Ukraine.
“I am a Taiwanese student, I support Ukraine.” Photo by Cat Thomas
Eric, who is Taiwanese, said he had come to support Ukraine against the Russian government’s invasion, having been following the news closely for the past month. Since yesterday’s news broke it has become a topic of conversation among his relatives at home.
“It’s definitely a tragedy and I think the European countries and America should do something more than just sanctions on Russia, because Russia won’t be afraid of sanctions, “said Eric. “I think western people, and even us, should be supporting the Ukraine people to stop the war as soon as possible because the Ukrainian people are paying the price right now, and as time goes on it will be more and more.”
Eric said that talking to Russians at the demonstration had educated him on the opposition from Russians to the invasion.
Speaking about the announcement from the Taiwanese government of intention to impose sanctions on Russia earlier Friday, Eric welcomed the move.
“I definitely support the sanctions, but I don’t think the sanctions will be very effective…maybe there is a possibility that Putin will stop this but, in my opinion, I don’t think he will. But I think it is still important.”
Photo by Cat Thomas
Letter to the Russian embassy
Temir Sakavov, from Kazakhstan, was collecting signatures on a collective appeal to the Representative Office in Taipei for the Moscow-Taipei Coordination Commission on Economic and Cultural Cooperation, the de facto Russian embassy, from Russians, Ukrainians and people from post-Soviet Union countries living in Taiwan.
Sakavov described the three-part letter, for which he had gathered 53 signatures, as Russians saying as taxpayers that they don’t want to fund this “crazy mission”; Ukrainians demanding that this be stopped immediately; and those from post-soviet countries declaring that “this aggression is what makes us more aggressive and we are saying the Russian government should forget their imperialistic ideas.”
The Russian office is not open on Fridays, but once the protest had largely dispersed at around 6 p.m. Sakavov delivered the letter to the reception of the building.
“We have to keep calm, no matter what happens,” said Sakavov, “And we have to do whatever we can do to support people from Ukraine. We can donate to funds in the Ukraine that help people in very difficult situations at this moment. And we can also protest to show that we all disagree with what Russia is doing.”
Photo by Cat Thomas
