In Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, on New Year's Eve, vandals painted the letter "Z" on the monument to Taras Shevchenko, an iconic Ukrainian poet and symbol of Ukrainian fighting against Russia's occupation.
Uneducated people drew the letter "Z" on Shevchenko's chest
The head of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal, Pavlo Sadokha, estimated the vandalish act as an attempt to strike a large-scale blow against Ukrainian historical spiritual values.
The letter Z, which Russian occupiers, pro-war propagandists, and supporters use as a symbol of the Russian invasion of Ukraine were painted also on the explanatory plaques near the monument.
It is worth noting that for Ukrainians who were forced to flee entire regions in an attempt to save their lives and families from unprovoked Russian aggression, the letter Z symbolises something else.
Hundreds of raped children and adults of both sexes and all ages by Russian invadors, recorded as mass savagery in 2022, which is very likely still to continue in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, where the Ukrainian population is deprived of any rights.
Hundreds of brutally tortured and murdered Ukrainian prisoners of war, which photographs and videos then sent to their mothers by Russians.
Thousands of Ukrainians left with sever psychological traumas after being forced to watch their families and beloved ones to be raped, tortured and killed by Russian occupiers.
Every day the best of us — Ukrainians, who fights Russian Nazism face-to-face — are dying at the frontline while the world leaders cannot dare and gives us the kind of military support that can stop this war.
This is only a little bit what the "Z" that the Russian occupiers and their supporters paint in the destroyed Ukrainian cities reminds us of.
A family of Ukrainians from Algarve quickly cleaned the paint off the poet's chest.
1167 monuments to Taras Shevchenko have been erected around the world, according to the Ukrainian Book of Records.
99 of them are in 44 foreign countries, including the US, Canada, Paris, Italy, the Czech Republic, Australia, Argentina and many others.
1068 monuments were in Ukraine before Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.
Taras Shevchenko (date of birth: March 9, 1814, / date of death: March 10, 1861) called on the Ukrainian people to fight against the Russian occupation and attempts to exterminate the local population since the days of the Russian Empire.
The poems in which he taught us to love Ukraine, to fight for it and our freedom from Russian torturers are still relevant to us.
Z-symbols in Europe: what is known
In September 2022, the letter "Z" was engraved on a 1,000-year-old cathedral and on an ancient Roman wall in the Spanish city of Barcelona, as well as on the Cologne Cathedral in Germany.
In Barcelona, unknown persons also drew the letter Z near places of assistance to Ukrainian refugees.
In October 2022, a 62-year-old driver was fined in Hamburg, Germany, for attaching a "Z" symbol to the windscreen of his car.
In March 2023, in Germany, a German of Russian descent was fined €1,500 for wearing a T-shirt with the letter "Z" on it.
A number of countries have banned the use of this symbol: Moldova, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, some German states, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan.
