Russian woman burns her passport at vigil in show of solidarity with Ukraine

The woman from Moscow said she took the decision to burn her travel document ‘as a gesture against the Russian government’
Elly Blake2 March 2022

A Russian woman has set fire to her passport during a protest in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

Anna Jakubova, from Moscow, set her passport alight at a vigil set up to show solidarity with Ukraine which saw hundreds of protestors travel across the country to attend.

She said she took the decision to burn her travel document “as a gesture against the Russian government”.

Anna Jakubova sets fire to her Russian passport
PA Wire

She said: “I burnt my passport as a gesture against the Russian government and to show that even Russian citizens are turning against this country and the horrific things that it’s doing.

“I am hoping to attract attention to the plight of the Ukrainians and give them a voice to amplify their suffering and their struggles.”

Ms Jakubova, a graduate from the University of Edinburgh, travelled from Dundee for the event.

She praised also Russian people back home for taking to the streets in a show of defiance against their leader Vladimir Putin after he invaded Ukraine.

The 26-year-old continued: “There are quite a few Russians protesting in Moscow and they are risking their livelihoods and their careers and their families.

“I feel I am representing a significant proportion of Russians, even if it’s not the majority.”

Ms Jakubova added: “I don’t want to be a citizen of a country that committed war crimes that are so horrible it killed children and innocent people who are just defending their own country.

Russian invasion of Ukraine
Russian passport set alight
PA

“I don’t think I would be able to go back to Russia and I don’t think I want to. I feel very sad. I feel shame that it is a country that is associated with me that has done this. I feel like nothing I can do is enough.”

Demonstrations have taken place across the UK including in Edinburgh and London.

Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Ukrainian evacuation - In pictures

People wait to board an evacuaition train at Kyiv central train station
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Russian troops have escalated the shelling of Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv following an airstrike at Freedom Square on Monday which destroyed the opera house and a local administration building.

In the country’s capital Kyiv, a Russian missile hit a TV tower, killing five people and knocking Ukrainian broadcasters offline.

Dmitry Koshkin, 41, originally from Kharkiv and now living in Edinburgh, also attended the vigil.

He has relatives who are hiding in a bomb shelter in his home city including his cousin, his cousin’s wife and their nine-year-old son.

“My cousin actually celebrated his birthday in these four concrete walls,” he said.

“It’s smelly and crammed with people with lots of children and people with dogs and cats. So, for his birthday present to himself, he actually ran back home to take a hot bath. That was his birthday treat.”

Mr Koshkin added: “I cannot comprehend these conditions. It also feels wrong to sit in my warm Edinburgh flat while they are doing that.

“I try to come to these gatherings as much as I can just to do something because it tears me apart that they are over there, struggling, fighting, helping each other, and I am 5,000 miles away, I cannot do much except for message on WhatsApp.”

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