Europe

Shock and shame in Berlin as Russians and Ukrainians face reality of war

Hours after invasion German politicians lined up to concede they had been ‘too trusting’ towards Moscow

People protesting in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/Getty Images

Derek Scally's face
Derek Scally in Berlin
Thu Feb 24 2022 - 20:30

Berlin’s Café Rossia is usually hopping at lunchtime. Shoppers, builders and students – most speaking Russian – cram the narrow space, heads bowed over bowls of borscht and steaming plates of pelmeni, while Russian television news or music videos blare over the din.

Not so on Thursday. The cafe was empty, the television blank. Why?

“No news today,” said the woman behind the counter primly, eyes tense. She handed over two piroshki filled with potato, still warm, then slipped into the back room to the news show streaming on her mobile phone.

Some 260,000 Russian citizens live in Germany alongside 250,000 Ukrainians; add those with Russian roots and those who speak Russian daily and the number rises to about 2.2 million.

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Berlin has 25,000 Russian citizens – and so many live in the western Charlottenburg district that locals jokingly call it Charlottengrad. Next door to Café Rossia the 24-hour grocery store is an institution offering smoked fish, caviar, vodka and sparkling Crimean wine for generations of grateful Russian emigrants – voluntary and involuntary.

“I’m from Ukraine and I am terrified,” said Anastasyia, a 75-year-old customer, her shopping trolley packed with vegetables, tins of fish and dried food. “We all know this won’t stop here.”

A young woman with a hand-painted blue and white cardboard sign reading “Hands off Ukraine” hurries past towards the adjacent train station and a demonstration across town.

“I just got off the phone with my family in Kyiv, they don’t know whether to stay or go, I feel so helpless,” said Anastasiya, tears welling up behind her glasses.

Young families

Some 6km east a multi-staged demo got under way on Thursday afternoon. By the time darkness fell, and the Brandenburg Gate was lit for the second night with Ukraine’s blue and yellow, more than 3,000 people of all ages had gathered, including many young families. Various signs read “We Stand with Ukraine” and “Putin Burn in Hell”.

One group moved north to the chancellery, while another group headed east and camped outside the Stalinist embassy of the Russian Federation.

“I never wanted to demonise Putin or get into friend-foe discussions about Russia, but he has gone too far this time,” said Ari, a 63-year-old Berliner, with a sign on his bike reading: “Mr Putin, stop the war in your head.”

Elizaveta, a 55-year-old Russian woman who lives in Berlin, said: “I was always proud of my country and my culture but this is the first time I was ashamed, not for my people but for what Putin is doing.”

Many Berlin demonstrators outside the Russian embassy were as critical of Nato as Russia – reflecting a wider ambivalence in German opinion polls.

“I never thought I would live to see war in Europe again,” said Ilse Kayser, born in 1946, wiping away tears and holding a “Hands Off Ukraine” sign. “There was a window in the 1990s for a new peace order in Europe with Russia, and now we have men ratcheting things up on both sides.”

In a televised address German chancellor Olaf Scholz left no doubt about who he blames.

“This is Putin’s war,” he said in a televised address, calling it a “terrible day for Ukraine and a grim day for Europe”.

Evacuation

Foreign minister Annalena Baerbock announced the evacuation of remaining German embassy staff in Kyiv, and promised Russia it would fail in its efforts to stifle the will for democracy, peace and a better future.

“President Putin, you will never be able to destroy this dream,” she said. “It is growing in Ukraine and is growing too in your country.”

While Berlin promised to support robust sanctions it remains opposed to supplying Ukraine with weapons, while the army chief Alfons Mais said years of military underinvestment had left the Bundeswehr “more or less bare”.

“The options we can offer to politicians to support [Nato] are extremely limited,” he said.

About 550 German soldiers are stationed in Lithuania as part of a Nato mission and the government has pledged up to 350 additional troop reinforcements.

Hours after the Russian invasion German politicians lined up on Thursday to concede they had been, variously, “soft” and “too trusting” towards Moscow. Former chancellor Gerhard Schröder was not among them. Now a Russian energy lobbyist, he called for a rapid end to the war in Ukraine.

“This is the responsibility of the Russian government,” he said in an online post, before adding the war was caused by “mistakes on both sides”.

Despite a ban in Germany, Kremlin-financed news station RT Deutsch continued to broadcast on YouTube, where an uncertain newsreader said “alleged genocide” in Ukraine had led to a “so-called military operation”. In a lively side panel, acidic comments dropped every second.

“Not even 8,000 viewers,” wrote one, “so much for the Russian propaganda machine.”