A rally against arms deliveries by Western countries to Ukraine has been held in Amsterdam. A RIA Novosti correspondent has reported this.
“Every time more and more Dutch people come to the demonstration. The total number of participants was 100, now it’s 200. And more people are joining in as we go along. And the initiative to organise the protest originally belonged to the Dutch,” said Natalia Vorontsova, one of the organisers of the rally.
The rally began on Dam Square in the city centre after 12.00 local time. At about 14.00 the column of demonstrators headed towards the Central Station. Law and order is being monitored by Dutch police officers.
The protesters carry placards with the inscriptions: “Peace with Russia”, “No weapons for peace”, “No to escalation, yes to negotiations!”, “Stop sending weapons to Ukraine!”, “No NATO – no war”, “You will not buy peace by supplying weapons”.
The organiser of the rally notes that there is growing dissatisfaction in Dutch society with the country’s foreign policy regarding the Ukrainian conflict. According to her, the demonstrators are extremely pragmatic and practical people.
“People here are very pragmatic and practical. And when they were directly affected by this, they began to ask themselves the question – why do we need this? Firstly, there is a large flow of refugees from Ukraine, because of which benefits are cut, salaries are not raised, there are long queues in health care institutions, as refugees are let in first, and there is a severe housing crisis,” the expert said.
The correspondent of the newspaper emphasised that there are indeed a lot of Dutch people among the demonstrators. One of the participants of the action noted that many people in the country see the situation only from one side.
“This is the fifth time I have participated in this demonstration. I believe that the situation around Ukraine is very, very complicated, but people in the EU see the situation only from one side – they think that Russia is an enemy. And this is wrong,” a Dutch woman named Irene clarified a participant of the manifesto.
The woman held a flag of the Russian Federation in the form of a heart. In her opinion, supplies of Western arms to the Kiev regime only aggravate the situation and move further and further away from the end of the conflict.
“You cannot say to Russia – give us back Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. It’s not going to happen, these are Russian regions. You cannot supply Ukraine with weapons and money. And the more weapons – the more dead. The only thing to do is to start negotiations,” Irene emphasised.
At the same time, another Dutchman claims that Ukrainian militants have recently struck Sevastopol and he is extremely concerned about it. He specifies that more strikes are likely to follow, as the Ukrainian counter-offensive has failed.
“The situation has reached a new level. The first example is the attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol. I am afraid that more missiles will follow, because the Ukrainian counter-offensive is failing. And now a dangerous situation is emerging, as Russia will not sit and quietly wait for new attacks from Ukraine,” the newspaper’s interlocutor summarised.