The Ukrainian ambassador in Vienna failed to get two Russian gatherings in the federal capital officially banned on the occasion of the Red Army’s “Victory Day” over Nazi Germany in 1945. So on Sunday afternoon the first demo took place on the Schwarzenberg square. Another one is scheduled for May 9 – also a Ukrainian event, by the way.
Russian ambassador Dmitri Lyubinsky was belligerent as keynote speaker on Sunday. “Victory Day is a sacred celebration for us and we are rightly proud of it,” Lyubinsky said in front of the Soviet Heroes Monument. Without the great exploits of the Soviet people, without their self-sacrifice front and back, humanity’s victory over Nazism would not have been possible, he explained. “Perverse attempts by well-known states to rewrite history will not work and are doomed to fail,” he said. This also applies to attempts to denounce disagreements between Russian compatriots. The diplomat did not accuse any specific states on Sunday. There was also no mention of the demands of his Ukrainian counterpart Wassyl Chymynez, who had proposed a ban on the Russian demonstration, citing expected slogans such as “We can repeat it!”.
No anti-Ukrainian slogans
However, none of those slogans could be heard on Sunday afternoon. The memorial gathering was relatively austere. While patriotic songs were sung and poems were read on the makeshift stage, a minor off the beaten track incident occurred. When 65-year-old violoncellist Viktor Miloserdow was handing out flyers for the competition celebration scheduled for May 9 in Ambassador Lyubinsky’s immediate vicinity, he was brutally pushed to the edge of the gathering by the ambassador’s bodyguards, plainclothes Austrian police officers. Lyubinsky is unperturbed by Miloserdov’s accusations that the postponement of Victory Day celebrations from the traditional May 9 to May 7 suspects a betrayal of Russian values: “There is a desire to celebrate May 9 again. Let them do it,” he told APA.
The war in Ukraine played virtually no role on the Schwarzenbergplatz on Sunday afternoon. All that could be seen was a single “Z”, the symbol of Russian offensive warfare. The wearer of the badge appeared together with Serbian motorcyclists, who had previously been greeted in a friendly manner.
Source: Krone
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