Over the weekend 70 German artists took 3.3 U.S. tons of paint onto a structure that has been slated for demolition and covered the 984 foot-long stretch of bridge with a message to Ukraine: Let us build bridges.
“Above all we want the message to reach the people in Ukraine so that they know that other people are thinking about them and feeling for them and are involved for them. That was the main message we wanted to send and that’s why we did this,” said one of the organizers, Davis Pahl.
The Luedenscheid initiative painted the lettering and a peace sign in Ukrainian colours on the Rahmedetal bridge over the A45, which is in danger of collapsing and has been closed to traffic and people before it will eventually get demolished.
In Vilnius, the Mayor of the Lithuanian capital painted a different message: ‘Putin, the Hague is waiting for you” on a road next to Russian embassy, as Ukraine braces for the bombardment of its capital Kyiv.
When elected in 2015, the Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Simasius ordered a removal of the last remaining Soviet monumental statues in the country, calling them “a lie”, and has since joined the paramilitary to train for resistance against an attack.
The Lithuanian government on Monday (February 28) said it would ask the International Criminal Court in the Hague to investigate Russia for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
(Reuters)
