How Russians who oppose the war celebrated ‘Day of Russia’ in London
‘We go out for those who can’t.’
Living in London is tough when you’re a 24-year-old emigre from Russia, newly married to a Ukrainian, amidst the ongoing war. The rent prices have increased by as much as 20%. The reference checks can quickly become a nightmare for foreigners without an address record.
As my wife Juliet and I finished our yet another prospective viewing this last Saturday in the area of Holland Park, exhausted from a month-long search process, we noticed people standing on the sidewalk opposite the Ukrainian embassy in London.
A large table stood in the middle, decorated with Ukrainian flags, history books in English (seemingly trying to illuminate Putin’s flawed sense of Ukrainian identity), T-shirts with slogans (“RUSSIAN MILITARY SHIP, GO FUCK YOURSELF!”), pins in Ukrainian blue-yellow bicolour with a heart in the middle. Passersby stopped to browse through the items. You could get anything you wanted — “Just take it,” the thirty-something woman with long ginger hair and a denim jacket told me — ”as long as you donated some money to Ukraine Refugee Fund.” I placed a pin on my shirt and sent ten pounds via Apple Pay.
“Are you the organizer?” I asked the woman who had talked to me before.
