On Thursday evening, demonstrators stood outside the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC, jeering anyone daring to enter the building, where diplomatic officials commemorated the first anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The protestors were adamant that Moscow's crimes must not be forgotten, waving Ukrainian flags and hoisting placards bearing the slogan "Putin=Hitler."

The anniversary of the invasion was juxtaposed with a national holiday to celebrate the Red Army's founding in 1918. But according to the protesters, the spetsoperatsiya, or "special military operation," of the Russia-Ukraine war has been an atrocity.

Revelers inside the embassy complex might have expected the protesters to have grown quiet just before 9 pm, when a minute’s silence was observed by all in the council chamber to honor the war’s victims. But the protesters were not silenced, and Ukrainian