BERLIN (Dispatches) – Several thousand people have taken part in a peace march ahead of Easter in Berlin, calling for stopping arms supplies to Kiev and starting peace negotiations on Ukraine, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Saturday.
Easter marches are traditional in Germany, with this year’s weekend peace demonstrations expected to be held in over 120 cities and towns across the country.
The organizer of the Berlin march, Netzwerk Friedenskooperative (Peace Cooperation Network), estimates the attendance at up to 10,000. The demonstration began at Berlin’s central quarter of Wedding.
The participants were seen carrying flags depicting the dove of peace, as well as banners that read “U.S. and NATO Get Out of Ukraine”, “Diplomacy, Not Arms”, “Against Pointless Sanctions, Cheap Energy Now”, “Tanks Never Bring Peace”, as well as other slogans against Europe’s dependence on the United States.
A performer sang a pacifist song in Russian, German and Yiddish and some speakers called for prompt peace negotiations on Ukraine from a mobile stage before the start of the procession.
“Stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, it only escalates and prolongs the conflict,” one of the speakers said, stressing that Russia’s security interests should also be respected given NATO’s weaponization and its expansion up to the country’s borders.
The development came amid persisting U.S.-led efforts to send more weapons to Ukraine to further escalate the military campaign against Russia.
Washington announced a new package of military assistance worth $2.6 billion for Ukraine on Tuesday, which includes a wide variety of ammunition from Pentagon stocks, 23 million rounds of small arms ammunition and 200,000 grenades, as well as funding for more high-tech weapons.
The U.S. has so far pledged more than $35.2 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine since February 2021, when Russia launched a “special military operation” in the former Soviet republic, insisting that it was aimed at defending the pro-Russian population in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Russian officials have repeatedly warned Western countries against supplying weapons to Ukraine, saying it risks prolonging the already protracted war.
In a recent development on the ground, a missile fired from Ukraine has reportedly been shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in the Russia-controlled Crimea, local officials have unveiled.
“A missile fired from the direction of Ukraine has been shot down over Feodosia,” said the head of the Republic of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov in a post on his Telegram social media account on Saturday.