In Paris, demonstrators regret that “awareness is not important enough in France”
A singular image stands out from the Instagram feed where Zoya Alechkina, 32, and her French husband, Jean-Christophe Prié, 39, have been following developments in the country since Thursday. A friend of theirs posted a photo of himself, smiling, in military fatigues, helmet on his head and gun in hand. “I had no doubt that he would commit”Jean-Christophe breathes in a trembling voice, while their children, Nikita, 3, and Micha, 2, play with rubber balloons in the colors of Ukraine.
“Those around us who can get involved do so. My 65-year-old father, who is Russian himself, volunteered to defend our city, Dnipro, but they refused him for health reasons”, says Zoya. She shows a video posted from Dnipro by a friend of hers where dozens of homeless people collect thousands of beer bottles at the same time to make Molotov cocktails to welcome Russian troops if they enter the city.
“We are afraid for them, but they are our only hope and Europe’s only hope to stop Russian aggression”says this mother who settled with her husband in France in 2017. She now regrets the lack of direct military support from NATO countries to the Ukrainian forces.
The slogan “weapons for Ukraine” resounds in the crowd where the colors of Chechnya, Georgia and the Syrian revolutionaries float next to the Ukrainian flags. “Awareness is not high enough in France”regrets Jean-Christophe. “We need a massive movement that compels governments to do more for Ukraine. » Among their relatives, some friends and Zoya’s sister take the road to exile. Jean-Christophe and Zoya plan to travel to Slovakia next week to assist them and those like them waiting at the gates of Europe.
