Protests, a seized yacht and spacesuit colours: 21 March 2022
A look back at reports from 19–21 March 2022 on street protests, a sanctions seizure in Gibraltar and a clarification about cosmonauts' suits.
What did opposition to the war look like on 21 March 2022, and how was it being met? Reports from that day and the two before it show protest in several countries, alongside a sanctions measure at sea level in Gibraltar.
On 21 March 2022, the Royal Gibraltar Police seized a superyacht owned by the Russian oligarch Dmitry Pumpyansky, which was docked at the Port of Gibraltar. Pumpyansky was sanctioned by both the United Kingdom and the European Union at the time. The seizure was reported as part of the international sanctions that accompanied the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Resistance in occupied Kherson
On 20 March 2022, residents of Kherson confronted Russian military vehicles and told the troops to go home. It was one of numerous cases of non-violent resistance in Russian-occupied Ukrainian towns and cities, where local people organised protests against the invasion and blocked the movement of Russian military equipment. As later described, the Russian military dispersed such protests, sometimes with live fire, injuring many and killing some. Most of the large protests ended in March.
Demonstrations abroad
The same day, anti-war demonstrators held a concert near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, calling for the war to end.
On 19 March 2022, a different kind of demonstration took place in Bulgaria. An anti-NATO protest was held during a meeting between the U.S. Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, and Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov. Participants opposed Bulgaria selling weapons to Ukraine during the invasion.
A clarification from orbit
Also on 19 March 2022, attention turned to Russian cosmonauts who had recently arrived at the International Space Station wearing yellow-and-blue spacesuits. They were not showing support for Ukraine: the colours represented Bauman Moscow State Technical University, which the cosmonauts were representing.
Taken together, the reports from 19–21 March 2022 show a war that drew public reaction well beyond the front line, from confrontations with armoured vehicles in Kherson to a concert in Berlin, a protest in Bulgaria and a yacht seizure in Gibraltar.
