Several of its members are Ukrainian and everyone knew someone trapped in the country.
Marichka Marczyk, at the rehearsals in London, said in a telephone interview that she’d just had a text exchange with her brother in Kyiv about what to do if he was killed in the conflict. “My will is simple,” he replied. “Burn my body/scatter the ashes,” adding: “All my riches to my kid.” Those riches include his honey bees.
Similar scenes played out in cities across Europe, where Ukrainian expatriates were grappling with the troubling news from their homeland. In Berlin’s Pariser Platz, hundreds of somber protesters wrapped themselves in Ukrainian flags.
Understand Russia’s Attack on Ukraine
What is at the root of this invasion? Russia considers Ukraine within its natural sphere of influence, and it has grown unnerved at Ukraine’s closeness with the West and the prospect that the country might join NATO or the European Union. While Ukraine is part of neither, it receives financial and military aid from the United States and Europe.
Lyudmyla Mlosch, 70, who runs an association for Ukrainians in Berlin, had been up since 5:30 a.m., trying to organize temporary shelter for friends, family and others who manage to leave the country. Her son and his family live in northwestern Ukraine and her grandson is studying at the university in Kyiv.
“My heart is broken in two,” Ms. Mlosch said.
She said: “I just feel helpless. When Putin says Ukraine belongs to Russia, I don’t understand how he could do such a thing to his brother and his sister.”
In Madrid, a small group of protesters, some in tears, gathered outside the Russian Embassy to demand an end to the invasion. They waved Ukrainian flags and shouted “terrorists.”
Nadiya Pshenychniak, a cleaner who has lived in Madrid for 20 years, said she was extremely worried for her family in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, including one daughter who recently had a kidney transplant. “This is, sadly, not such a big surprise,” she said, “because Russia has always wanted Ukraine and has a long history of doing horrible things to our people.”
Ms. Pshenychniak, 69, had plans to visit her family in the summer, but she now fears it may be some time before she sees them again.