“Of course the situation is complicated”, because the lack of North American support “does not give Ukraine optimism”, but the fact that Europe has promised a new package of funds “also gives us confidence that we will not be abandoned”.

In any case, “even without support, the Ukrainian people will continue to fight anyway” and this feeling is transversal, said Pavlo Sadhoka.

“Even those Ukrainians who were most pro-Russian realized that the only option is to fight, otherwise they will be executed, just for being Ukrainian,” he added. “For the Ukrainians there is no other option: we have to win this war, even without weapons.”

This war “changed Ukrainian society”, making it more aware of the risks of being under the yoke of Moscow, in “a conflict so brutal that it touched the Portuguese and the entire world”.

On the contrary, “Russian society in general has many identity problems and is very radicalized to the right” and the recent death of opponent Navalny showed that the system “built by Putin is a bit similar to Stalin’s time”, with instruments of violent repression, creating a “model of fear and control”.

In Portugal, around 60,000 Ukrainians are counted as immigrants, many of them already with Portuguese nationality, according to data from the Portuguese authorities and the association, which places the community as the fifth largest of its kind.

The vast majority of Ukrainians who came to Portugal come from the western regions of Ukraine and began arriving in the 90s, for economic reasons. Authorities estimate that the number of Ukrainian immigrants exceeded 100,000 in 2010, but the economic crisis in Portugal led to a reduction in the community.

In parallel, after the Russian invasion two years ago, Portugal granted 59,532 Temporary Protection titles to refugees from Ukraine, according to data from the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).

Related article: