About 100 Ukrainians and supporters protested outside the de facto Russian embassy in Taipei yesterday to tell the world that “Russia is the aggressor” ahead of the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We are here to remind the world that Russia is the aggressor,” Korean-Ukrainian Oleksandr Shyn, one of the organizers, said at the event outside the de facto embassy — officially the Representative Office in Taipei for the Moscow-Taipei Coordination Commission on Economic and Cultural Cooperation.
Shyn’s remarks were made in an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump’s recent claim that Ukraine started the war with Russia.
Photo: Yu Chien Huang, AFP
“You should have never started it,” Trump said about Ukraine while criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who had expressed concern that his country was not included in the “peace” talks between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia.
Shyn said the US’ change of stance on Ukraine has left many Ukrainians feeling “betrayed.”
“We hope this [situation] will change,” he said.
Trump also recently labeled Zelenskiy a “dictator” who refuses to hold elections.
There is no question that Zelenskiy is the legitimate president of Ukraine and commander-in-chief of the army, Shyn said.
“We have martial law right now enacted and we cannot have the elections, we cannot endanger our people’s lives by having elections,” he said.
Under Ukraine’s constitution, it is not legal to hold national elections during a period of martial law.
Shyn also said that Ukraine is not opposed to making sacrifices to end the war.
“As the new realities show, we now live in an extremely transactional world. We’ll have to give something and we’ll have to offer something for the help we get, but I hope this will be rational,” he added.
Shyn said the protest was also meant to continue rallying support on behalf of Ukraine, particularly given the invasion has gone on for three years.
“We have a very general message, first of all, to ask for people to support us, but this time, of course, to support Ukraine’s agency and Ukraine’s will and Ukraine’s right to exist,” he said.
“And we also want to remind, as people living in Taiwan, to remind the world that Taiwan is supporting Ukraine, that this country on the other side of the world is standing with the people of Ukraine,” he added.
As of this month, Taiwan’s government has allocated more than US$130 million for infrastructure projects in Ukraine, such as bridges, hospitals, churches and schools, while private donations have exceeded US$32 million, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS