Organisers said the event aimed to defend freedom and equality as the war in Ukraine cast a shadow over eastern Europe, the Reuters news agency reported.
The annual Pride march in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv had been cancelled due to Russia's invasion, leading the LGBT+ community in Warsaw to team up with their counterparts in Ukraine to hold the event in the Polish capital, according to Reuters.
Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell
The executive director of KyivPride, Lenny Emson, was cited as saying: "Russia denied us the right that we were fighting for for years, Russia denied us the Pride, our march of equality that we are holding every year since 2012 in Kyiv ... That is why we are marching in Warsaw.”
Emson added, as quoted by Reuters: "We are marching for peace, we are marching for Ukraine, we are marching for victory."
Meanwhile, Paulina Piechna-Więckiewicz from Poland's Equality Volunteering Foundation said she was honoured "to be able to jointly organise an equality march with KyivPride," according to Polish state news agency PAP.
Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski was among those who attended this year's event to show solidarity with the Polish and Ukrainian LGBT+ communities, the PAP news agency reported.
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Source: PAP, Reuters
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Piotr Miszczuk.