On Saturday, February 4, the Truth and Neutrality Alliance, a broad coalition of anti-war activists, held a protest outside the British Embassy against London’s role in the escalation of the almost nine-year-long conflict in Ukraine.

Following then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s November 2013 decision to suspend an EU trade deal in order to pursue closer ties with neighboring Russia, Britain would play a key role in the ensuing regime change operation which saw a Western-backed coalition of anti-Russian neo-Nazi elements come to power.

With the ethnic Russian Donetsk and Lugansk regions in the east of Ukraine facing the realistic prospect of genocide at the hands of the new regime, they would ultimately break away from Kiev’s rule in April 2014, following five months of anti-Russian violence.

An eight-year-long war on both Republics would follow, with Kiev receiving key military assistance from Britain in doing so, ultimately leading to 14,000 deaths.

In February 2022, with attempts to resolve the conflict peacefully via the Minsk Accords having proved fruitless, Moscow’s hand would be forced and a special military operation was launched into Ukraine in order to protect ethnic Russians and destroy any military infrastructure that would have been used against Russia had Kiev ultimately gone on to become a NATO member - the alliance having failed to honor a post-Cold War agreement to not expand eastward.

Again, Britain would continue to increase its military support of Kiev through the training of Ukrainian personnel and also the provision of billions of pounds worth of weaponry, leading to the precarious situation where the world now lies on the brink of nuclear war.

In response, a number of Irish Republicans, anti-war activists, and members of Ireland’s Russian community would gather outside the British Embassy to call for de-escalation in Ukraine and for the 26 County State to remain militarily neutral.

In a blatant act of political policing, six members of the Free State’s secretive Special Detective Unit would demand the names and addresses of those in attendance. Undeterred, the protesters would remain outside the Embassy for an hour, highlighting the thousands killed in Kiev’s eight-year war on the Donbass and the western media censorship of the conflict. The protest would conclude with several short speeches, with a similar event planned for Dublin city center on the 25th of February.