The head of USAID, along with several other important officials close to the US president, attended the demonstration in Washington, where Ukrainian nationalists demanded more arms shipments and punishment of Russia from the United States.

USAID head Samantha Power also joined EU and US officials at the pro-war rally, one of the main organizers of which was a Ukrainian activist group that

He calls himself a "true banderist" and the "Washington branch" of the Ukrainian nationalist organization Right Sector.

Alongside Power, Karen Donfried, the Deputy Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs of the Biden administration, spoke at the event. Donfried worked for almost 20 years at the German Marshall Fund, a think tank funded by the American and German governments, and left the position of president to join the White House in 2021.

The demonstration was held on the first anniversary of the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The protesters demanded that the United States send fighter jets to Ukraine and "punish Russia," the news portal Greyzone wrote.

The American ambassador of Ukraine, Oksana Markarova, also gave a speech; and Kimberly Bassett, Secretary of State, Washington, DC; Mark Ordan, Chairman of the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce; and Stavros Lambrinidis, Ambassador of the European Union to the USA.

Paul Grod, the president of the World Ukrainian Congress, who previously stood up several times in defense of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators during the Second World War, was also on stage. Furthermore

also called the members of the Galician group of the Waffen SS, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists as heroes,

who, according to him, "fought for the freedom of their ancient Ukrainian homeland".

After the speeches, the protesters marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the White House, where they chanted, among other things, that "Russia is a terrorist state." A group of protesters marched to the residence of the Russian ambassador in Washington.

USAID also advertised on its website , one of the organizers of which was US Ukrainian Activism, which has been supporting Ukrainian radical elements since the upcoming events in 2014. The founder of the organization, Nadja Saporinszka, was at the same time

was also on the blacklist of the US Department of Defense,

because of his ties to Ukrainian neo-Nazi and ultra-nationalist militias.

Mandarin

Featured image: Celal Gunes / ANADOLU AGENCY / Anadolu Agency via AFP