Russian tanks destroyed and captured by Ukrainian forces last year have been on display in the capitals of three Baltic states in recent days, with Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians taking pictures and showing solidarity with Ukraine.
But among those visiting the tanks were ethnic Russians, some laying flowers and lighting candles to commemorate dead Russian soldiers and show support for Moscow in its war against Ukraine, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Russian gestures in favor of Moscow have resulted in some heated exchanges and at least one fight in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, highlighting heightened tensions in these countries between the Baltic majority and the country’s sizable Russian minority.
On Wednesday, supporters and opponents of the war argued in front of a burning Russian T-72 tank that was hit by Ukrainian forces near Kiev on March 31. It was displayed in Independence Square in the center of the Estonian capital, a venue decorated with Ukrainian and Estonian flags, and the Ukrainian anthem was heard in the nearby St. John’s Church.
The Estonian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that the tank was a “symbol of the brutal invasion of Russia” and that it also proved that “the aggressor can be defeated”.
Last week, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced that the tanks would be displayed as museum exhibits in the three Baltic capitals and in Berlin, following similar displays in Poland and the Czech Republic last year.
“When people die in Ukraine it’s a powerful reminder to all of us how well and peacefully we live,” said Vilnius resident Darius Klimka.
In Estonia, Anatoly Yarkov, a 78-year-old Soviet military veteran who visited the tank in Tallinn, said he hated Ukraine’s war with Russia in a war he says stemmed from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“Russian tanks burn again during the war with the Nazis,” Yarkov underlined.
The Kremlin regime, led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is promoting the baseless narrative that Moscow’s military is fighting neo-Nazis, while Ukraine has a Jewish president who lost family members in the Holocaust and heads a democratically elected government. West.
While some Russians placed flowers in a tank in Vilnius, Lithuanian city officials placed a trash can nearby that read “Flowers, candles and Soviet nostalgia.”
As a reminder of the activities of the Russian forces, one placed a toilet next to the tank.
Lithuanian police have launched several investigations into the incidents, including one in which a man was beaten for removing flowers.
Not all Russians are on Moscow’s side, Marina, a 60-year-old Russian citizen who did not give her last name for security reasons, insisted she condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and praised the reaction of Kiev forces.
In Berlin, the tank became a memorial as pro-Russian supporters placed red roses on a wrecked tank displayed outside the Russian embassy.
The flowers were eventually removed and the Russian Embassy refused to organize the laying of the flowers, but insisted it was a “sincere gesture of German citizens and comrades in Germany”.
Nerijus Maliukevicius, an analyst at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius, pointed out that placing pro-Russian tributes on tanks was part of a Kremlin-organized tactic, pointing out that images of these gestures were circulated on social networks and in the states. Television.
“This is how you create an alternate reality of Europe supporting Putin,” he told the AP in reports.
“Hardcore explorer. Extreme communicator. Professional writer. General music practitioner. Prone to fits of apathy.”