Activists in Rome Start Collecting Signatures to Urge ECHR to Investigate Crimes in Donbass

ROME (Sputnik) - Activists in the center of Rome have started collecting signatures to urge the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to launch an investigation into crimes committed in the breakaway Donbass republics since 2014, Amedeo Avondet, the organizer of the demonstration and the head of the United Italy political organization told Sputnik.

According to Avondet, about 1,000 people took part in a rally in a square of the Italian capital on Saturday. Protesters demanded that Rome withdraw from NATO and that Western countries stop supplying Ukraine with weapons. The demonstration was held with the remote participation of representatives of the United Russia party from Moscow.

"Given that it was above 33 degrees Celsius [91 degrees Fahrenheit], I did not expect that there would be so many people. We declared the need for Italy to get out of the madness of the economic war with the sanctions being lifted. Moreover, weapons supplies are only fueling the conflict," Avondet said.

The organizer of the demonstration expressed the strong belief that the conflict in Donbass could be resolved with the involvement of the United Nation, provided "Russia is again included in international politics."

Avondet intends to hold the next rally in southern Italy, in the city of Naples or Reggio Calabria.

On February 24, Russia began a military operation in Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The Russian Defense Ministry said the operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only and the civilian population is not in danger.