"Russia is a terrorist state": protest in Lyon, France

The participants of the action drew the attention of French society to the crimes of the Russian occupiers — the murders of Ukrainians in Izyum and the terrorist attack in Olenivka against Ukrainian prisoners of war.

People held in their hands pictures of tortured Ukrainians in Izyum, Olenivka and other places, as well as photos of residential buildings destroyed by Russian missiles in Ukrainian cities.

One of the most tragic photos at the demonstration was the hand of a tortured Ukrainian serviceman with a yellow-blue bracelet, hero of Ukraine Serhii Sova, which went viral around the world.

Photo: Mykola Kiuzen

With these photos, the participants of the action in Lyon remind all the French and the French authorities who Russia is, and that its war crimes must be remembered. Especially when certain pro-Kremlin forces declare that Russia is not an enemy and it is worth negotiating with it. The price of agreements with Moscow is illustrated in these photos.

On September 15, after the de-occupation of the city of Izyum in the Kharkiv region by Ukraine's Armed Forces, a large mass grave of Ukrainian soldiers and about 450 civilian burials under numbered crosses were discovered in a forest. These graves appeared during the occupation of Izyum by Russian invaders.

The exhumation in Izyum began on September 16. According to the first conclusions of the law enforcement officers, most of the bodies have signs of violent death and torture.

The massacre in Izyum became the basis for the statements of many Western leaders condemning the new war crime of the Russians.