MANHATTAN – A small, quiet, peaceful protest was aiming for a big impact with a dramatic display outside the Russian Consulate on the Upper East Side Wednesday afternoon. Nearly two dozen demonstrators laid down on the pavement for a ‘die-in,’ symbolizing the death and devastation unleashed on civilians by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
The protesters, who hail from New York City’s theater community, came together Wednesday afternoon after learning Ukrainian officials announced Russian forces had bombed a theater in the city of Mariupol that was being used as a shelter by hundreds of innocent people.
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“We wanted to represent the loss of lives… with our bodies on the street, on the asphalt of New York City to make it more real for everyone,” said protest organizer Frank Hentschker, Executive Director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in Midtown.
“These are real people who died today. They were fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, grand parents,” Hentschker added.
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“It is a shocking event and we are speechless and we are outraged.”
Satellite imagery released by Maxar, a space technology company, shows the word ‘children’ painted in the Russian language on the pavement outside the front and back of the theatre that was attacked— in what appears to be an attempt to notify Russian forces who was inside.
Russia has denied responsibility for the bombing.
Back here on the Upper East Side, the Russian Consulate, on East 91st Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, has been the scene of a number of protests since Russia’s war in Ukraine began last month— leading the NYPD to close the street to traffic.
At one demonstration, protestors threw snowballs at people who were seen leaving the consulate, but they have otherwise remained peaceful.
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