Blue and yellow Ukrainian flags fluttered amid posters of doves, while on stage a man crooned John Lennon’s antiwar song “Imagine”. But like many Germans demonstrating against Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, for Lisa Just, the peace banner she was waving now meant something different than before.
A week ago, she saw herself as a pacifist. Now she believes Germany should provide military support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
“I’d always said, no way would I ever support a war. But now I think this is the right way to go,” the schoolteacher said at a rally in the centre of Berlin on March 3. “This escalation [Russian president Vladimir] Putin started has to be stopped.”