Russians in Cyprus are set to protest outside their own country’s embassy on Monday over an explosion in an apartment building in the Russian city of Belgorod which they say was caused by the Ukrainian government.

The event is being organised by the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots of Cyprus, which described the explosion as a “terrorist attack” and said protestors will “call on the global community to stop supporting and supplying weapons to the terrorist regime in Kyiv”.

They added that the rally will be attended by “our Russian compatriots, all sympathisers”, and that those in attendance will “call on western countries and the Cypriot government to review their attitude towards the terrorist regime in Ukraine”.

Additionally, they said demonstrators will call for “an end to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskiy’s terrorist attacks” and for Zelenskiy to “pay for his crimes”.

The cause of the explosion in Belgorod has not yet been independently verified, with the Russian government insisting it was a result of Ukrainian shelling, while the Ukrainian government says it may have been caused by a bomb dropped by a Russian plane headed for Ukraine.

Belgorod is located a short distance from the Ukrainian border and the city of Kharkiv, where Russian forces launched an offensive last Friday.

The Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots of Cyprus has already garnered controversy in recent weeks, with the Ukrainian embassy in Nicosia expressing its “deep disappointment” over the Cypriot authorities’ decision to give permission for pro-Russian events to be held last week.

They said they see the granting of permission for the events to be held as a “cynical and immoral gesture towards all Ukrainians”.

This gesture, they said, has been done “at a time when Ukraine is fighting for its right to exist for the tenth year in a row, and the courageous Ukrainian people are fighting every day not only for their peaceful democratic future, but also for the whole of Europe.”

“Now … Ukraine is fighting against total evil. Now … Ukraine is fighting for the future – its own and that of the whole of Europe, the whole free world,” they said.

For this reason, they called on Cyprus’ authorities to “pay careful attention to the activities of the so-called Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots of Cyprus, as well as to carefully investigate the main goal and purpose of its activities.”