OTTAWA — Standing outside Russia’s embassy in Ottawa, retiree Karen Niven-Wigston is decked out in yellow and blue, holding a pink plastic flamingo as a sign of support for Ukraine. “If Canadians knew exactly what Russia is doing, they would be as appalled as we are, and they would do everything they can to help Ukraine defeat Russia,” she said. Four and a half years after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a group of protesters meets every weekday to show support for Ukraine, chide embassy staff and find colourful ways to remind people about the war. The protests take place during weekdays over the lunch hour, when embassy staff pop out. Some hold Ikea umbrellas with the blue and yellow colours of Ukraine’s flag. Niven-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. She said her resolve grows when she reads about atrocities widely attributed to Russia, including its abduction of thousands of children from Ukraine. “Every time they do something horrible like bombing a children’s hospital, they make me more committed,” she said. Niven-Wigston worries Russia is being normalized, such as the International Olympic Committee loosening its suspension on Russian athletes. She’s concerned that some antiwar groups she has long been part of seem to echo Kremlin talking points about NATO being an aggressor against Moscow. At the embassy, the protesters use props and signs that only people closely following the conflict would understand. 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. Niven-Wigston said another protester told her recently the name was also a nod to the female engineer who helped develop it. This summer, Ukraine started striking at warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer. The protesters put up signs advising that the embassy is not a Wildberries warehouse. 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. Niven-Wigston said the group doesn’t 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. The embassy staff usually don’t 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 “51st state!” 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’s intelligence services deployed at the embassy. Supporters debated online whether it was time to fill the balloons with glitter, but decided against it due to safety and environmental concerns. “We’re trolling the Russians,” says Kathryn Morneau, who started going to the protests three years ago. “The 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,” she said. The group is buoyed by support online from Ukrainians and supporters of Ukraine, as well as people driving by who frequently honk in support — to the point that the group switched evening pickets to midday, to stop annoying the neighbours. PhD student Angela Kalyta occasionally takes breaks from her studies and work to take part in the protest “to show the Russian embassy that Canada is not getting tired.” She holds a sign saying the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin is “out of gas,” a reference to Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries. Kalyta says she’s 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’s attention. “That’s how tyrants and bullies like Putin and like Trump, that’s how they like it … so that we lose track and give up on standing for anything,” she said. “The real danger is when we all give up.” 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. 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. “Mind your own business and leave me alone. Because every time I park here, there’s always a smart comment. So mind your own f---ing business,” the postal delivery worker said. 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. But members of the group say they have positive exchanges with the Ottawa Police liaison officer overseeing embassy security. This has included an understanding that they cannot block access to the embassy, as the Criminal Code offence of mischief involves anything that “obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property.” In September 2022, Russia summoned Canada’s ambassador in Moscow over frustrations with Ottawa’s handling of security concerns at their embassy in Canada. 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. Under the 1961 Vienna Convention, countries receiving foreign diplomats are “under 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.” The UN’s international law library notes that national courts have been called on to define “the balance to be struck between protecting the dignity of embassy premises and permitting effective exercise of human rights to demonstrate and to speak freely,” according to a description by scholar Eileen Denza. Russia’s embassy did not respond when asked whether it feels Canada is upholding the Vienna Convention. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2026. Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
