'Stop the war in Ukraine' protest planned for Bristol next month

Organisers have slammed the "deeply provocative and reckless" NATO for its part in the Ukraine

Tomas Malloy Reporter

11:16, 26 Jul 2022

Sign reads 'Putin stop your war; Ukraine wants peace'(Image: Paul Gillis/BristolLive)

A 'stop the war in Ukraine' protest is set to take place in Bristol next month. The protest rally will take place at 2pm on Saturday, August 6 in Castle Park.

Protesters are set to take to the streets of Bristol for a rally against what they deem to be a "useful proxy war against Russia" for the West in Ukraine as conflict continues in eastern Europe. Organisers at Bristol Stop the War Coalition have slammed the "deeply provocative and reckless" NATO for its part in the ongoing war and say the West "bears a heavy responsibility for the disaster".

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They believe "Britain and the US have abandoned any suggestion of restraint" as the nations fund Ukraine's war effort against Russia. Western countries including the UK have continued to send defence supplies to Ukraine since the start of the conflict, and UK defence secretary Ben Wallace revealed last week that 50,000 artillery shells and hundreds more anti-tank weapons would be sent in the coming weeks.

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The protest rally will take place at 2pm on Saturday August 6 at "Peace Glade" in Castle Park. It is not yet known how many people will attend the event.

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A statement from Bristol Stop the War Coalition reads: "On August 6 1945 the USA dropped the world's first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima - a similar attack on Nagasaki followed and hundreds of thousands of Japanese people were killed by the blast and its after-effects. The anniversary of those attacks is an appropriate time to re-state our opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the ensuing war, NATO's reckless eastern expansion and the threat of nuclear war.

"Stop The War opposed the Russian invasion from the start, but the West bears a heavy responsibility for this disaster. Senior US foreign policy figures advised that the eastward expansion of NATO up to the Russian borders would be deeply provocative - NATO decision makers knew this, but carried on regardless. "Last minute diplomacy might well have averted the war, and many senior former US diplomats and Russia experts urged the US to accept Vladimir Putin’s offer of talks before the invasion took place, but this advice was rejected. Now Britain and the US have abandoned any suggestion of restraint and are pumping ever greater numbers of weapons, at huge cost, into what they increasingly see as a useful proxy war against Russia.

"The Ukrainian people pay the price with their lives while the people of Europe face escalating fuel and food prices. Join with us to show your opposition to this war. It must be stopped."

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This protest rally is being held as part of the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Gathering organised by Bristol CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) and others, said the group.

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