Stood under the Peace Statue, which marks the border of Brighton and Hove, a gathering of Ukrainian refugees sing songs from their homeland while cars driving along the seafront sound their horns.
Shouts of “Slava Ukraini” from passers-by receive waves from the refugees, wearing the Ukrainian flag around their shoulders.
One protester, Olesia Sydorenko, tells the crowd that she is from the Kherson region, now flooded by the Dnipro river after the collapse of a hydroelectric dam in southern Ukraine.
Olesia was one of around 30 Ukrainians who held a protest vigil yesterday, in response to the news of the collapsed dam in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
She said: “Today I couldn’t stop crying, because all we had is gone. Buildings, homes, cars, animals; the whole town is destroyed.
“This hydroelectric station and the bridge, it was the landmark place I could go to feel at home.
“My children ask me ‘What does it mean that the hydroelectric station is destroyed? Will we ever go back to our home, our city?’”
The BBC has reported that, while Russia and Ukraine have both accused each other of attacking the dam, hundreds of thousands of people in the shadow of the dam have been left without drinking water.
At least 30 communities have been flooded, and 13 people are officially known to have lost their lives.
Olesia, who was a primary school teacher in the now-flooded town of Nova Kakhovka, travelled to the UK with her two sons and arrived in Worthing in May last year.
She said: “It was a terrible trip for me because I am from the Kherson region. My town Nova Kakhovka was occupied from the first day of invasion.
“I took my boys and one suitcase.
“We couldn’t go through the Ukrainian part because Russian troops were with guns and they killed a lot of people. So I went through Crimea where my two aunts live, then I went to Georgia, then Turkey and then here.
“I was very surprised that there are very nice people here. They all want to help us and I couldn’t believe it.
“People asked me, ‘what do you need and we will help you?’ People have helped with clothes, shoes and food.
“The host family was very nice and has helped me with English and documents. One month ago I managed to get a flat to rent.”
Yaroslava Matvieienko is another displaced Ukrainian, who brought her disabled grandmother to Britain and now lives with a host family.
Formerly working as a journalist in Ukraine, she now volunteers at the Worthing Herald while looking for work.
She said: “I think that the war is not over and we should constantly remind the world that it’s not over yet.
“You think you can’t hate any more and then each day comes.
“I was devastated.
“There was a zoo where 300 animals died because they were blocked.
“In our community, Brighton and Hove and Worthing, we decided to gather things for the animals and we will be sending a minivan on Saturday to Ukraine with medicines and things.
“Animals are less thought about in war. They are defenceless.”
Protesters held signs which read “Stop ecocide in Ukraine”, acknowledging the impact of the collapsed dam for future generations.
Yaroslava said: “When this water goes away it will be a desert. All the fields will be dry, there will be no harvest and there will be a shortage of products like bread.
“Europe will definitely face prices going up because Ukraine is an agricultural provider.
“Also, this dam in Nova Kakhovka, the water was used to cool a nuclear power plant, so it’s not over.”
After Olesia led the crowd in a series of protest chants, the refugees sang a lullaby in their native language.
Vladyslava Bondar, who organised the protest vigil, said that the cradle song about a kitten reminded her of mothers singing to their babies.
Vladyslava said: “The special line for me is now, ‘Don’t walk about the house. Don’t wake up the child.’
“In that area of Ukraine the houses are now destroyed, the children are being evacuated and the little grey and white cats are forever buried under the water.”
More songs were sung and a moment of silence was held for Ukrainians who had died since the conflict had begun.
As traffic on the coastal road calmed, the teenagers climbed down from the peace statue steps.
A young Ukrainian walked away from the group on the seafront, holding a sign saying: “Russia has flooded my home.”
Ukraine openly fired a HIMARS missile at Kakhovka dam October 2022. Ukrainian ministry of defence said it was a test for destroying the damn. In Western and Ukrainian media, Ukrainians have openly talked of wanting to destroy the dam to flood ethnic Russia majority areas, areas occupied by Russia, and to destroy Russia’s near-river defences.
Russia has not fired at the dam. Since the Ukrainian attack, the dam’s controls and gates have been damaged, meaning they can’t let out enough water when the reservoir.
US & allies destroyed Nord Stream, Ukraine accidentally bombed Poland and Kremenchuk Railway Station, & sent in “clear up” troops to Bucha to deal with those workers that co-operated with Russian forces. Ukraine has been firing at positions near Energodar nuclear power plant, and even tried to conquer it when IAEA officials arrived to inspect it. US has organised for military to be of the “inspection” team. So, it’s clear who the terrorists are.
This whole conflict started by US using the nazi groups it backed from 1944. 1st in war to 1954 in Ukraine against Soviet forces. 2nd then as sabotage, spreading hatred and espionage until fall of Soviet Union. 3rd after Soviet Union fell, those groups were uses to provide the street backbone to US-backed politicians and oligarchs. 4th they were used to keep a protest (based on EU/US lies) going extremely long, then to turn it violent. They ransacked government offices, lynched governmen workers, raidedand killed government officials. They sniped at protestors and police to cause confusion and animosity between the political sides. After violently seizing power for a then token illegal vote to impeach the then president to give power to US-backed politicials and oligarchs. They then went to stop to ethnic Russian communities from protesting and saying if democracy is now a coup by US-backed nazis, they’;ll hold a referendum to cede from Ukraine. Nazis terrorist groups rampaged south and east Ukraine. Ukrainian tanks stormed barricades, unlike during Euromaidan coup.
Russia only loses from Kakhovka dam being destroyed. Ukraine gains. It’s currently holding back water at Dnipropetrovsk dam, lowering water levels so the nuclear power plant can’t pump new water into the short-term reserve.
We fund these nazis, terrorists, US lackeys for US imperialism to weakn Russia, aim for another coup in Russia (Yeltsin 1996 US gave him $1 billion to get elected when he was really unpopular and would lose to communist candidate). Once Russia is defeated, it’ll be fragment like Yugoslavia, with US bases north of China, completing the encirclement.
All of what I say is available on US government documents, many of which has been de-classified or leaked. Ex Pentagon & NATO officials are trying to tell the truth and raise the concerns of what US is trying to do, but the media drowns it out. If people aren’t given the truth, or there’s a full and honest debate, all we have is the propaganda in legacy news media. People are seeing a bad guy Putin do terrible things, when actually we’re the terrorists, inflicting nazi ideology and terrorists on Ukrainians, and trying to break Russia and China to maintain US hegemonic power.
I urge you all to desperately do some reading quickly. It’s also worth noting that Russia won’t lose this war. It can’t, just like when it fought German nazis, who were encouraged by US/UK to attack Soviet Union. Soviet Union fought nazis from when attacked 1941. US/UK didn’t open the Western Front until 1944, leaving Soviets to get slaughtered.
The British Empire, then replaced by US empire (1,000s of islands and lots of puppet muppets) are the 2 worst terrorist regime in human history. Russia will remove US/NATO from its border and meddling in internal politics. Russia and China will grow even closer together and help the rest of the world dump the $ and start inter-trading and developing, unlike US/EU keeping the world poor.
Do some reading, don’t support nazis, terrorists, or the continuation of subjagating the world, not for us, but for our own oligarchs to maintain extreme wealth and power. If you don’t read actual information, you won’t know why WW3 might start soon, if it hasn’t already, and why you’d be in for one hell of a wake up shock. There’s too much to wrote, but read for yourselves, don’t take my word for it. Read USA’s own government documents and plans to do exactly what they’ve been doing for past decades in US government-backed Washing ton think tanks in 1980s/90s. Ignore truth and history at your own peril.