Vitsche, an association of young Ukrainians in Germany, claims there has always been harassment of Ukrainians in Germany, but it has intensified since russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In this Ukrainian organisation, they claim that activists have received death threats and FSB-style harassment. Many received door calls at 3am from masked men in black cars who shouted obscenities before driving off. One of their activists even had his house broken into, scattering white powder over the bathroom.
Germany has also been the scene of many pro-russian demonstrations. One Vitsche volunteer, a refugee from Kyiv, was outside her headquarters in Berlin when there was a parade of russian cars with flags outside. She asked them what they were doing. According to her, they became aggressive and told her they would find her and rape her.
Mariia, a 25-year-old student in Frankfurt an der Oder, a town on the border with Poland, said she had been provoked in her university dormitory.
“It all started with some Zs in laundry rooms and the dorm,” said Mariia, a 25-year-old student. – They were spreading. At first, it was just one and then there were more and more. It’s a psychological attack and I have to see them every day. During the worst time of the Mariupol siege, there was a sentence put on a notice board saying ‘kill all Azov members’.
“I felt scared. When it was dark I didn’t want to go outside alone because I didn’t know what to expect, if there was someone around the corner waiting to attack. I was scared all these months. It was definitely a psychological attack. When I first saw Zs I had a panic attack just like at the beginning of the war. It was unpleasant and terrifying.