Russians living in Serbia join rally against Ukraine war

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A Russian man burned his passport to show his anger over the invasion of Ukraine. Others held up Ukrainian flags while chanting slogans against the war and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A group of Russian citizens living in Serbia were among dozens of people on Sunday who braved freezing weather and a late winter blizzard to gather in central Belgrade in support of Ukraine and against the war that in the past 11 days has claimed scores of lives and driven about 1.5 million people from their homes.

“I don’t want to have anything to do with what Russia is doing on the territory of Ukraine and in the world,” Vladimir Nesimov said after burning his passport. "I don’t want to bear any moral or physical responsibility for something that does not depend on me ... I don’t want to be a citizen of that country.”

Nesimov and his wife Evelina Nesimova traveled to Belgrade from the western Serbian town of Loznica to attend Sunday's gathering attended by Serbia's peace activists and the Russians in Serbia. Evelina Nesimova said the couple moved from Moscow to live in Serbia back in 2014, after the Russian invasion of Crimea.

“We did not want to live in a country where Putin is the president,” she said. “We were ashamed.”

Nesimov's action came days after a Russian woman burned her passport during a vigil for the people of Ukraine in Edinburgh, Scotland.

While the Russians at Sunday's rally were firmly against the war, many in Serbia support Putin and his invasion, largely blaming what they view as the anti-Russia policies of NATO and the West for the conflict. Hundreds of right-wing followers marched in Belgrade last week in a rare show of support for Putin in Europe, while several young men also on Sunday chanted pro-Russia slogans during the peace...