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<\/p>\nNiven-Wigston started showing up at the daily protest shortly after the February 2022 full-scale invasion, saying she felt a need to commiserate with others over what Russia was doing, and to take some action.<\/p>\n
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She said her resolve grows when she reads about atrocities widely attributed to Russia, including its abduction of thousands of children from Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time they do something horrible like bombing a children\u2019s hospital, they make me more committed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Niven-Wigston worries Russia is being normalized, such as the International Olympic Committee loosening its suspension on Russian athletes. She\u2019s concerned that some antiwar groups she has long been part of seem to echo Kremlin talking points about NATO being an aggressor against Moscow.<\/p>\n
At the embassy, the protesters use props and signs that only people closely following the conflict would understand.<\/p>\n
The protesters regularly put up plastic pink flamingos on the lawn outside the embassy, a reference to Ukrainian-made missiles known as Flamingo rockets. The exact origin of the nickname is unclear, though a pink painted version of the rocket was displayed by Fire Point, the company which makes them, at an event in Lviv, Ukraine in September 2025.<\/p>\n
Niven-Wigston said another protester told her recently the name was also a nod to the female engineer who helped develop it.<\/p>\n
This summer, Ukraine started striking at warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia\u2019s largest online retailer. The protesters put up signs advising that the embassy is not a Wildberries warehouse.<\/p>\n
Faith Jamieson comes to the protest wearing a beret and camouflage shirt, and marches around holding a lengthy Sicilian zucchini as if it were a gun, topped with a blue and yellow ribbon. She does a mock salute each time Russian embassy staff drive out of the gate for lunch.<\/p>\n
Niven-Wigston said the group doesn\u2019t want to glorify war. She said the military symbols they use are meant to make embassy staff feel uncomfortable about working for the Russian government.<\/p>\n
The embassy staff usually don\u2019t speak with the protesters, but Niven-Wigston said that some started sporting red MAGA hats after U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, with some rolling roll down their windows to yell \u201c51st state!\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, a Ukraine supporter filmed a man walking outside the embassy who pricked yellow and blue balloons on a lamp post. An online sleuth found records that seemed to suggest the man was a member of Russia\u2019s intelligence services deployed at the embassy.<\/p>\n
Supporters debated online whether it was time to fill the balloons with glitter, but decided against it due to safety and environmental concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trolling the Russians,\u201d says Kathryn Morneau, who started going to the protests three years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole Russia-Ukraine war is pretty black-and-white. So it was an opportunity to demonstrate my displeasure to the Russians and to be with like-minded people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The group is buoyed by support online from Ukrainians and supporters of Ukraine, as well as people driving by who frequently honk in support \u2014 to the point that the group switched evening pickets to midday, to stop annoying the neighbours.<\/p>\n
PhD student Angela Kalyta occasionally takes breaks from her studies and work to take part in the protest \u201cto show the Russian embassy that Canada is not getting tired.\u201d<\/p>\n
She holds a sign saying the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin is \u201cout of gas,\u201d a reference to Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries.<\/p>\n
Kalyta says she\u2019s alarmed at how Ukraine has slipped from the news cycle, as wars and crises break out on multiple continents. But she says many other causes that rightfully draw people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how tyrants and bullies like Putin and like Trump, that\u2019s how they like it \u2026 so that we lose track and give up on standing for anything,\u201d she said. \u201cThe real danger is when we all give up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not everyone is a fan of the protests. People visiting the embassy with paperwork or for receptions have squirmed as protesters chant that Russia is committing genocide.<\/p>\n
While a Canadian Press reporter visited the protest on Aug. 18, a Canada Post employee dropping off mail for the embassy railed against the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cMind your own business and leave me alone. Because every time I park here, there\u2019s always a smart comment. So mind your own f\u2014ing business,\u201d the postal delivery worker said.<\/p>\n
Morneau said the group has no formal structure, and tries to avoid being disruptive. She said a protester once threw red paint on the embassy, which crossed a line. A phone lobbed over the fence led to police attending.<\/p>\n
But members of the group say they have positive exchanges with the Ottawa Police liaison officer overseeing embassy security.<\/p>\n
This has included an understanding that they cannot block access to the embassy, as the Criminal Code offence of mischief involves anything that \u201cobstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September 2022, Russia summoned Canada\u2019s ambassador in Moscow over frustrations with Ottawa\u2019s handling of security concerns at their embassy in Canada.<\/p>\n
At the time, the Russian embassy in Ottawa published security-camera footage that appeared to show a Molotov cocktail being thrown over the fence in the early hours. <\/p>\n
Under the 1961 Vienna Convention, countries receiving foreign diplomats are \u201cunder a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UN\u2019s international law library notes that national courts have been called on to define \u201cthe balance to be struck between protecting the dignity of embassy premises and permitting effective exercise of human rights to demonstrate and to speak freely,\u201d according to a description by scholar Eileen Denza.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s embassy did not respond when asked whether it feels Canada is upholding the Vienna Convention.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niven-Wigston started showing up at the daily protest shortly after the February 2022 full-scale invasion, saying she felt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[247,361,354,362,353,355,356,82,358,359,360,357],"class_list":["post-32429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}