Hundreds of Ukrainian immigrants filled the block outside the Russian consulate on the Upper East Side Sunday to protest their home country’s invasion by Russian troops.
Holding signs that read, “Save Crimea,” “Putin’s hands off Ukraine” and “USA don’t betray Ukraine,” the demonstrators marched from Bryant Park to the consulate on East 91st Street.
“The Russians are provoking us,” said medical assistant Marta Osadchuk, 28, of the Lower East Side.
“The EU [European Union] guaranteed when we got independence that our borders would be our own. Now we need a third party to step in.”
Earlier, there was a candlelight service at the All Saints Ukrainian Church in the East Village honoring the scores of protesters who died when police fired on t demonstrators in the capital, Kiev.
At the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in the East Village, Mercy College student Oksana Gapyuk, 21, of The Bronx, said, “We cannot win if we go against Russia with weapons.”
“It must be a peaceful movement,” she said.