Today we blockaded the Russian embassy in London. Here’s why.

“If you do not leave these areas urgently, you will be annihilated. You know that everyone has given up on you. They left you alone to face your doom and nobody will give you any help.”

Leaflet dropped on Aleppo this week

Today we blocked the Russian Embassy in an attempt to disrupt their plans to unleash further hell on the people of Aleppo. Maybe some of the pictures bubbled up on your news feed — limbs strewn alongside a tangle of activists on what is otherwise is a normal London street.

Why did we target the Russian Embassy?

Right now Russia is the country primarily responsible for the ongoing killing in Syria that is driving so many people out of their homes and causing unimaginable human suffering.

A year ago Russia decided to send in its warplanes to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s fragile dictatorship. Since then Russia has used illegal weapons on civilians, including incendiary bombs and cluster bombs. It’s also giving political cover to Assad’s continued use of chemical weapons by blocking any international attempts to stop him.

275,000 people are trapped in besieged east Aleppo today and like so many other Syrian towns, they are being slowly starved and bombed into submission.

Russia has ruled out returning to the diplomatic talks that could secure a peaceful transition to a new government in Syria. Instead they are expected to launch a final assault towards this promised “annihilation”. Until Aleppo is “cleansed”.

Putin plans to make a final push for “victory” while the world is distracted with the US election.

Why the limbs?

Every single day thousands of photos and videos are uploaded from Syria showing the aftermath of Russian and Assad regime aerial attacks.

One story that I will never forget came from Rady, a young volunteer rescue worker from Idlib. After a Russian airstrike he rushed to the scene where him and his teammates found a man whose wife, daughter and newborn baby had been killed in an airstrike.

After burying his wife and daughter, the man returned to the scene begging the rescue workers to dig to retrieve some part of his baby. He wanted something to hold onto. Something to bury.

Such is the utter brutality of Russia’s actions that ordinary Syrians, just like you or I, are left searching for the limbs of their loved ones.

Why Civil Disobedience?

I’ve sat in the UN while Russia lies about their actions seemingly without consequences. I’ve sat in meetings with multiple governments who could stop these bombs today to be told with a shrug “we know, we’re sorry it’s awful”. I’ve sat in rooms with international NGOs who lament that if this were an earthquake, a natural disaster, we could get more people to care.

But here’s the thing — we do care. There are millions of us around the world who see no difference between us and the Syrians being attacked in their homes. When we see the ongoing war crimes we are outraged not just at Russia and the Assad regime, but at the phoney impotence of our own leaders.

We know, deep in our hearts, that if this were happening to us there would be Syrians blocking the Russian Embassy in our place.

We know there are risks to the action we are taking today and we are crossing a legal line. But sometimes the inaction and apathy of our politicians demands to be challenged, and with the impending all-out attack on Aleppo there has never been a more appropriate time to stand up and be counted.

Anna Nolan