In Germany, a man «threw a 10-year-old child off a bridge» because he «spoke Ukrainian»

German police are investigating after allegations of attacks on children in the city of Einbeck. Photo: Lars Berg

German police are investigating the case of a Russian. man after he allegedly threw a 10-year-old Ukrainian boy off a bridge for speaking his native language.

Investigators believe the attack was politically motivated as refugees from Ukraine faced backlash in Germany, where more than a million people live. welcomed from the very beginning of the Russian invasion.

A man believed to be in his 40s approached a group of children in the town of Einbeck in Lower Saxony who were sitting together on a bridge and speaking Ukrainian.

He told them that they should speak Ukrainian instead -Russian. and that, in fact, Ukraine started the war.

According to the investigation, the man pulled the girl by the hair and threw the boy over the railing of the five-meter-high bridge into the canal.< /p>

The boy hit the iron beams of the bridge and fell into the water.

The man then took a glass bottle and threw it at the boy while he was still in the water, hitting him on the right shoulder. The attacker fled, while other children helped the injured boy out of the water and told his parents about it.

The boy suffered minor injuries to his left leg and head, but was discharged from the hospital shortly after admission.

Attacks on Ukrainians in Germany have intensified since Berlin stepped up support for Kiev with heavier weapons and opened the door to refugees.

0309 Military aid to Ukraine

Both the extreme right, who tend to sympathize with Putin, and the Russians living in Germany, have not accepted this support and are becoming increasingly hostile towards Ukrainians. Ukrainian students in Frankfurt recently woke up to find the letter Z, the symbol of Putin's war, on their dormitory.

Some Ukrainians in the German capital reported that they had removed all Ukrainian symbols from their clothes. for fear of being targeted.

About 3.5 million ethnic Russians live in Germany, the highest population in the Western world, as well as Russians of German origin and Russian Jews.

Millions migrated to Germany in the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union . . While mostly well integrated, some are suspected of Kremlin sympathies that came to the fore after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

«Willingness to hate, to hurt»

«This clearly shows the level of hatred among a certain large group living in Germany. Many identify with Russia and the Soviet Union — they watch Russian television and are completely brainwashed by Russian propaganda,” said Sergei Sumlenny, director of the European Resilience Center.

Although this attack was “extreme” and “absolutely unprovoked» it also «was no exception», as Mr Samlenni told The Telegraph. “This is the standard level of anti-Ukrainianism that you see among Russians, the willingness to hate, hurt and even kill indiscriminately just because this person speaks Ukrainian.”