by Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS, April 22 (Reuters) – Environmental activists have planned a wave of protests across Europe for Earth Day on Friday, including demanding an immediate halt to European oil and gas imports from Russia and an end to the construction of infrastructures linked to fossil fuels.
In Berlin, Warsaw, Brussels and elsewhere, activists have held rallies outside official buildings or German embassies, where they will hand out red-stained rubles to symbolize the blood that coats a currency they say fuels both the climate change and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Germany is among the EU countries that oppose an embargo on Russian oil and gas for fear of repercussions on their economies.
A dozen activists from the city of Lviv in western Ukraine also planned to demonstrate.
“When Germany continues to buy gas and oil from Russia, it means that it spends its money on building new military machines, new bombs, which kill Ukrainians,” said Natalia Gozak, responsible for of the EcoAction association from Lviv.
The 27 EU countries have decided to ban imports of Russian coal from August, as part of comprehensive sanctions also targeting Russian banks and oligarchs.
Yet they remain divided on whether to impose an immediate and full embargo on Russian fuels, which Germany and Hungary say would hurt their economies. The EU imports 40% of its gas from Russia.
“This is war. We have to prepare for a longer marathon,” said Dominika Lasota, a Warsaw-based climate activist. “The conflict will not stop with the last bomb that falls (…), it will stop once we end the industry [des énergies fossiles] and the system that underpins it.” (Reporting Kate Abnett, with Gloria Dickie and Simon Jessop in London, French version Federica Mileo, editing by Kate Entringer)