The Community of Ukrainian-Cypriot friendship said on Friday they will stage a protest on Sunday “to express frustration” with the fact that the national day of Russia would be marked in Cyprus with an event at Eleftheria Square on the same evening.

“Our people will come with posters and flags to demonstrate that such celebrations are absolutely inappropriate,” the Ukrainian group said.

The protest will take place at the same time as the Russian event, 7pm.

“Tolerating such celebrations has nothing to do with democracy. It is not a demonstration of tolerance to the other ‘point of view’ by the authorities of Cyprus. This is tolerance to violence and terror, encouraging the supporters of war to persist in their opinion that military aggression is a legal means of solving political contradictions,” it added.

The group said it was also dangerous for Cyprus because “the Russian government shows itself as friendly and generous only if you obey”.

They said Sunday’s protest titled Beware of Predators was to “warn Cyprus against tolerating Putin’s regime supporters”.

“Don’t let the supporters of Putin feel welcome in your country. Don’t let them celebrate their terrorist state on the main square of your capital. Learn from our mistakes, we also used to treat them as friends. It’s not about democracy any more it’s about survival,” the statement concluded.