Ukrainians and Rise for Climate fight Russian oil tankers in Antwerp: “Only way to stop” | Antwerp
AntwerpA hundred Ukrainians joined forces with environmental movement Rise for Climate at the Port House in Antwerp on Saturday. Both groups together called for an immediate end to Russian energy supplies to our country.
“Only when the deliveries stop will Russia negotiate an agreement,” said Anna Melenchuk of Promote Ukraine. According to the organization, using Russian oil and gas is the only way to stop the war. They find it bizarre that after five rounds of sanctions, oil from gas has not yet been discussed.
“Poetry understands only forceful European decisions. If there is no momentum for an embargo now, when will it be?” asks Melenchuk. “Yes, you will feel it in the portfolio, but we have to dare to make an offer.”
Larry Moffet of Rise for Climate has found in the Ukrainians a loyal ally in the fight against global warming. “We’ve been asking this for years,” says Moffet. “The war gives us another reason to stop the oil machine. It is better to put a military budget into wind turbines.”
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Rebuilding broken cities also emits a lot of CO2, according to Rise for Climate. “When this war is over, there will be an ecological slope,” says Moffet. “Rebuilding Aleppo would generate 22 million tons of CO2. That will be the same in cities like Mariupol.”
Young Olena Kuzhym, a refugee from Kharkiv and a student in Brussels, said: “Putin smiles in the face of Europe because you are so dependent. The political will to be found now!”
“The Russian economy is fairly small and heavily dependent (40 percent) on oil and gas,” explains Kuzhym. “An embargo would hit them quickly and hard. We give our lives for freedom and in exchange we only ask for an end to those oil imports. European money makes the Russian monster bigger bigger, that’s how we finance a genocide.”
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