Pro-Ukraine Activists Launch Petition to Freeze Russian Ambassador in Romania

Pro-Ukrainian activists have launched a petition to stop the supply of electricity, water and gas to the Russian Embassy in Romania and freeze its ambassador in retribution for his country’s ongoing attacks against civilians.

Accusing Valery Kuzmin of being a member of “the terrorist regime of Moscow”, the initiative says he deserves to suffer the same fate as those affected by the missiles his country launches against Ukraine in an effort to “use of winter as a weapon”.

“Ninety years ago, Moscow used the famine as a weapon against the Ukrainian people, committing a genocide known as the Holodomor,” the petition reads.

“Today, Russia is on the verge of committing another Holodomor. Millions of people in Ukraine face power outages in winter as a result of attacks by Russian hordes.”

Since October and after suffering a number of defeats on the battlefield, the Kremlin has orchestrated almost weekly mass missile attacks against the civilian energy infrastructure of Ukraine, plunging many of its cities into darkness and leaving residents without power as the winter sets in.

The petition was launched by Romanian Mircea Ioan Savin, editor of the online publication Podul and an active organizer of pro-Ukrainian events in his country.

"Russian officials should be responsible for their treatment of the Ukrainian people. We also want to show the Ukrainian people through this petition that we stand in solidarity with them in the struggle for freedom," the petition says. 

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The London-based chef and author had emigrated from Russia after the invasion of Crimea in 2014 and often shared anti-war messages on his popular cooking programs.

The petition is just one of many initiatives launched by Savin, who has teamed up Podul director Răzvan Gheorghe and Darya Kustanovych, a Ukrainian teacher from Kharkiv, and Asociatia 21 Decembrie 1989 to organize weekly protests in Romania with a different topic each week.

These have included, "Ukraine should be given more weapons until it returns all territories along with Crimea", "Ukraine should be accepted into NATO","it is necessary to stop the activities of Russian companies in Romania, including Lukoil and Gazprom”.

Another protest was also organized in front of the Iranian embassy to stop providing military support to Russia. 

With the ongoing invasion and as a former Soviet country, many Romanians share Ukrainian’s animosity towards Russia.

“The Bucharest regime, with the support of Moscow, killed and tortured Romanian intellectuals and major figures of the political opposition in the 1950s,” says Savin.

 “We believe that we have a lot in common with the Ukrainian people in the context of the struggle for freedom.”