The facade of the Russian consulate in New York was vandalized with red paint, police said Friday, in what appears to be a gesture of protest as Russia annexed four Ukrainian regions.
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At midday on Friday, large patches and streaks of red paint covered several feet in height and width of the facade of the Consulate, a Renaissance-style building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a noted an AFP photographer.
The entrance gate has also been covered in red paint.
AFP
Police were notified around 1:30 a.m., a New York police spokesman told AFP.
“There were no arrests and the investigation is ongoing,” the official added, adding that the incident was considered “possibly motivated by hostility.”
AFP
This act of vandalism comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin formalized the annexation of four Ukrainian territories on Friday, after referendums denounced as sham elections by many countries, the United States in the lead.
AFP
On Friday, a particularly deadly missile strike also killed at least 30 civilians in an area under Ukrainian control near Zaporizhia (southern Ukraine).
Rosie Morse, a retiree who lives in the neighborhood, saw a resemblance to “contemporary art”, while judging that the purpose of this action was “to show our feelings towards Putin, and I don’t can’t say that I don’t agree.
Bystander Romen Baulin said he saw it as “an expression of how people in New York realize that Putin is killing people.”