Disillusioned Ukrainians offer dead girl’s shoes to Scholz ‘to sell to Russia’
A group of Ukrainian protesters who demand western countries stop trade with Russia arrived in Berlin on Tuesday (March 29), calling on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to stop selling goods to Moscow.
Several dozen Ukrainians, among them refugees and children, placed a pair of shoes they said had belonged to a now-dead six-year-old Ukrainian girl called Tatyana outside the chancellery.
“These shoes are completely new. She didn’t have a chance to wear them. So we brought them to Olaf Scholz and we propose to him to sell them to Russia as he is selling goods to Russia,” protester Iryna Zemlyana said outside the chancellery.
Scholz was visiting the Ahrtal region in western Germany, more than 600 kilometres (370 miles) from Berlin, which was hit by deadly floods last summer. His economy ministry has ruled out a total embargo on exports to Russia.
The Ukrainian group of protesters made their way to Germany after staging a protest at the Polish-Belarusian border 10 days ago where they blocked a highway in an attempt to prevent goods from reaching Russia by road.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday (March 28) urged Western nations to toughen sanctions quickly against Russia, including an oil embargo, to stop Moscow from having a free hand to escalate its measures against his country.