Nearly 200 people yesterday protested outside the Russian representative office in downtown Taipei, urging the international community to stand with Ukraine and step up efforts to force Russia to halt its invasion of the country.
Protesters also demonstrated on Friday outside the office, called the Representative Office in Taipei for the Moscow-Taipei Coordination Commission on Economic and Cultural Cooperation.
Russian artist Evgeny Bondarenko displayed drawings of a person resembling a cross between Adolf Hitler and Russian President Vladimir Putin and called for the war to stop.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I feel violated, because I am Russian, I have [a] Russian passport, I am born in Russia with Russian family and Russian friends, but I also have a lot of friends in Ukraine, and I respect and love Ukrainian people,” Bondarenko said.
Russia began its attack on Ukraine without obtaining the permission of the Russian people under the assumption that they agreed, he said.
“I say sorry, but you cannot do it like this and just say Russian people agree with this war. You can’t,” he said.
He said he left Russia because of its policies and traveled the world before coming to Taiwan about five years ago.
“My first time in Taiwan, I started to realize what is freedom,” said Bondarenko, who is married to a Taiwanese woman.
Ukrainian Alex Khomenko, one of the organizers of the rally, said he hoped the Russian military would not conquer Ukraine, adding that he would continue to support his country and keep urging Western countries to back Ukraine.
“I think they are still continuing the attacks, so that is the only thing I will be looking at right now,” Khomenko said.
Khomenko added that there were some parallels between the situation in Ukraine and tensions across the Taiwan Strait, but they were not exactly the same.
However, a Taiwanese at the rally surnamed Chang (張) said the situations are similar.
She felt that some Taiwanese had forgotten their history, so she attended the rally to let Taiwanese know that China could copy Russia’s actions.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS