Protest and solidarity rally ‘Marburg stands with Ukraine’ on 25 February 2023
Speeches at the rally
Speech by Yurii Radiev:
Today, one year after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I would like to address three arguments that I often hear in defence of the Russian Federation.
One of these is the ‘eastern expansion of NATO,’ i.e., that NATO somehow ‘threatens’ the Russian Federation or that it was ‘provoked’ by Ukraine. Apart from the fact that this is complete nonsense, I would like to add what Putin himself said on 29 June at a press conference in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, when asked for his opinion on Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Here is a direct quote in Russian: ‘As for Sweden and Finland, we do not have the same problems with Sweden and Finland that we unfortunately have with Ukraine. We have no territorial issues or disputes. We have nothing that could cause us concern in terms of Finland or Sweden joining NATO.’ ‘As far as Sweden and Finland are concerned, we do not have the same problems with Sweden and Finland as we unfortunately have with Ukraine. We have neither territorial issues nor disputes. We have nothing that could cause us concern regarding Finland and Sweden joining NATO.’ Please think about these words: “territorial disputes”. The dictator himself has confirmed that all talks about NATO expansion were just a pretext to justify his invasion of Ukraine. And what territorial disputes did Russia have with Ukraine? Putin has only confirmed what everyone already knew: the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the Russian occupation of the Donbass region, which began in 2014. The latter in particular was confirmed in a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on 30 November 2022.
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The full text of the speech can be found here.
Speech by Hubert Kleinert, spokesperson for the Zeitenwende initiative:
I am Hubert Kleinert, spokesperson for the Zeitenwende Marburg initiative, and I would like to welcome you all here on behalf of the co-organisers of this event. The co-organisers are the Marburg Green Party, the Marburg SPD, the Marburg CDU, the FDP, the Protestant Church, the Marburg Jewish Community, the German-Ukrainian association Hand in Hand, Pulse of Europe and the Young European Federalists.
We have gathered here to remember that terrible day 84 years ago when the Second World War began with the German invasion of Poland. This war, unleashed by the National Socialist regime of violence, claimed the lives of around 65 million people by 1945 – soldiers and civilians alike. Twenty-seven million Soviet citizens alone lost their lives, along with around ten million Germans and six million Poles. At least six million Jews fell victim to the Nazis’ racist genocidal mania. And for hundreds of millions, this war meant destruction, hunger, misery and the loss of their homes.
The memory of this greatest military catastrophe in recent human history and of the horrific machinery of extermination of National Socialism still reminds us today to strive for peace. It reminds us to do everything in our power to ensure that such a thing can never happen again. It reminds us to work together peacefully as peoples. It urges us to reject racism, nationalism and chauvinism. And it urges us to condemn war as a means of politics. War must never again be accepted as the continuation of politics by other means. That is why we are here. We stand for peace. And we stand for the peaceful reconciliation of interests through political means.
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The full text of the speech can be found here.
Joint appeal by the democratic parties in Marburg, the churches, NGOs and the Ukrainian community:
On 24 February 2023, it will be one year since Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine. What hardly anyone in our part of the world thought possible, despite Russia’s aggression in 2014, has come to pass: war has returned to Europe.
Russia’s aggression is not only an extremely serious breach of the fundamental principles of international law. It is also unprecedented in European history since 1945. For the first time in post-war history, a European state is attempting to destroy the state integrity of another state by military force.
The justifications for this criminal war of aggression are absurd. To claim that it is about eliminating a ‘Nazi’ system in Ukraine not only turns the truth on its head. Russian war propaganda also insults the historical memory of the fight against the Nazi regime of terror and the role of the Red Army.
For a year now, this war has brought death and destruction, annihilation and devastation. Putin and his regime are responsible for the suffering of millions of Ukrainians and the deaths of many thousands of Russian soldiers. There is much to discuss about what has been done right or wrong in the foreign policy of Western countries. But nothing can justify this criminal war of aggression. No one in Ukraine has threatened Russia’s security.
Even after a whole year of this war, Putin has not achieved any of his war aims. Ukraine is defending itself courageously and resolutely. Many of us also believed at the beginning that Ukraine would not be able to withstand the military power of the Russian armies. This is not the case, as the last twelve months have shown.
This is also due to the fact that solidarity with and support for Ukraine, especially from Western countries, has been stronger and more united than the Russian dictator had anticipated. This makes it all the more important that this support continues.
The defence of Ukraine must be successful. It must be successful because the brutal logic of violence must not triumph over the rule of law and the principle of peaceful cooperation. It must be successful because otherwise fears in other European countries would continue to grow, resulting in a new Cold War. In this sense, Ukraine is also defending our security.
Because preventing a Russian military victory is the most important goal, we must help Ukraine with all the means at our disposal. We must provide Ukraine with humanitarian aid, and we must support it politically and economically. But we must also help it with military equipment so that it can exercise its right to self-defence.
We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine who are fighting for their self-determination.
We want this war to end soon, we want death, violence and destruction to stop. We are in favour of a negotiated peace. However, we also recognise that such a peace can only be achieved realistically if Ukraine is also strong enough militarily to force Russia to agree to a negotiated peace that is acceptable to Ukraine and secures its state sovereignty and integrity.
We want to send a public signal on the first anniversary of the day this terrible war began. A signal of protest against an autocratic system in Moscow that is waging war on a neighbouring state and is as indifferent to international law as it is to the consequences of the war for its own population. But we also want to send a signal of solidarity with Ukraine. We want to show that we consider undivided and comprehensive solidarity with the Ukrainian people to be morally and politically imperative. We want to show that the citizens of Marburg stand with you – across all party lines and other differences.
That is why we call on all of you to come to the protest and solidarity rally on 25 February at 4 p.m. on the market square!
Initiative Zeitenwende Marburg
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Marburg
Die Marburger SPD
CDU Marburg
Klimaliste Marburg
Bürger für Marburg (BfM)
Der Evangelische Kirchenkreis Marburg
Katholisches Dekanat Marburg-Amöneburg
Pulse of Europe Marburg
Junge Europäische Föderalisten (JEF)
Die Ukrainische Community Marburg