Employees of the Berlin Story Bunker museum and German activists Enno Lenze and Wieland Giebel have installed a Russian tank destroyed by Ukrainian forces near Kyiv during the first days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in front of the Russian Embassy building in Berlin, a Novaya-Europe correspondent reports.
Photo: Alina Danilina / Novaya Gazeta Europe
“War criminals are sitting in that embassy. Not one person from the embassy has come out against the war in Ukraine. <…> I always ask myself what I can do, and it’s not much. But to put this utilised tank in front of the Russians’ door as a sign of protest is something. Glory to Ukraine,” Wieland Giebel said.
Photo: Alina Danilina / Novaya Gazeta Europe
The damaged Russian tank T-72, the 1985 model, which is used in the installation, hit an anti-tank mine during the battle for Kyiv near the village Dmytrivka, not far away from Bucha, in the first days of the war. The tank will remain in front of the embassy for the next several days.
The tank was actively used in combat and it has bullet holes from different weapons, a statement published on the museum website states. According to it, the 37th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade from the Russian city of Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, could have participated in the fighting near Dmytrivka. Russian forces from Buryatia lost half of its personnel and equipment in a short time in the war in Ukraine.
“We want to give the terrorists their trash back. They killed, robbed, and made millions of Ukrainians flee [their own country] and continue doing so daily,” the organisers previously said.
Photo: Alina Danilina / Novaya Gazeta Europe
In autumn 2022, a Berlin court allowed activists to install a Russian tank destroyed in Ukraine near the Russian Embassy. The court ruled that such an installation is considered an expression of opinion protected by free speech. After the ruling, the tank was transported to Berlin with the help of the National Museum of the Military History of Ukraine.
In June 2022, the activists appealed to the administration of the Berlin district Mitte, asking to be allowed to install the tank in front of the embassy for two weeks. The city authorities denied their request, saying that demonstration of the destroyed vehicle would be “inappropriate”, seeing as people were, most likely, killed inside of it.
