Members of the Russian-speaking community residing in the federal capital Ottawa demonstrated yesterday in front of the Russian embassy to denounce the Russian military invasion of Ukraine and the massacres targeting civilians in this country for 60 days.

At around one in the afternoon, there were about 60 people, most of them Russian speakers, gathered to express their support for the Ukrainian people who have been facing the Russian invasion since last February 24. Among the protesters was a Russian citizen, whose name will not be mentioned for fear of endangering any of her family members in Russia, holding a poster bearing the words "Criminal Regime."

This woman, who has been living in Canada since her teenage years, held the signs yesterday condemning what she describes as a crime.

The demonstration, according to one of its organizers, Dmitry Litov, is an attempt not only to acknowledge guilt but also to resist Vladimir Putin's effort to speak on behalf of the Russian-speaking community worldwide. Litov, originally Russian, said, "Many Russian-speaking Canadians, many of whom come from post-Soviet states other than Russia, such as Belarus, feel ashamed and horrified by the developments, because Russian soldiers speaking the same language are killing innocent people in Ukraine."

The goal of this gathering is also to bring closer and build bridges between the two communities, Litov added, because many Russians living in Ottawa realize that relations with the local Ukrainian community are tense and have become fragile due to this raging war.

A Russian citizen said, "I believe this bridge exists. I see that there is an organization of small groups to help raise money and send medicines, and it is mixed, including Russians and Ukrainians."

Flags in white and blue colors waved in the sky over the demonstration as a symbol of resistance to this war in Ukraine. Some participants redesigned the Russian flag, replacing the red color which, in their opinion, evokes blood, with white, the color of peace, making it composed of two white rectangles with a blue rectangle in the middle.