Hundreds of people yesterday marched in Taipei to show solidarity with Ukraine as Russia’s invasion of the eastern European country entered its third week.
The demonstrators gathered at Daan Forest Park at 1:30pm. Ukrainians and Taiwanese gave speeches and sang the Ukrainian national anthem.
After chanting “Taiwan stands with Ukraine,” the group marched toward Ketagalan Boulevard and the Presidential Office Building.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Speaking at the march, Ukrainians Alex Khomenko and Daria Zheng thanked Taiwanese for their support in this time of crisis.
Khomenko, one of the march’s organizers, said his mother is in the US, but she has heard about the plight of one of her friends in their hometown in eastern Ukraine.
“She heard that one of her friends is still stuck in a five-story apartment building that has been badly damaged by bombings. They could not leave because their 90-year-old grandmother is still with them,” he said, describing it as a reality his compatriots face every day.
Calling the situation in Ukraine “heartbreaking,” Khomenko called on Taiwanese to continue to support Ukraine and keep the momentum going.
The march ended with singer Kimberley Chen (陳芳語) performing the John Lennon song Imagine.
Separately yesterday, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party held a rally in Kaohsiung to show support for Ukraine.
The rally was attended by about a dozen Taiwanese and one Ukrainian living in the city.
A government-designated bank account has received NT$578 million (US$20.35 million) in donations from Taiwanese since it was established on March 2.
Large amounts of supplies have also been donated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the agency launched a drive on Monday last week asking people to provide goods and medical supplies for Ukrainian refugees.
The government has said it would join international sanctions against Russia, but has yet to detail any specific products sanctioned, and has not stopped the purchase of its biggest import items from Russia, including coal and natural gas.
The ministry on Friday announced a special program to take in Ukrainian refugees, saying that Ukrainians with relatives in Taiwan who are Taiwanese citizens or Ukrainians with residency can apply for a special visa.
Applicants must have a Ukrainian passport and documents proving they have relatives in Taiwan, the ministry said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS