Invasion Of Ukraine: Protests Continue, Iceland’s Government Responds, Telecoms Offer Free Calls To Ukraine

Following last week’s protests held by Russian citizens and others in Iceland against the Russian invasion, more protests were held over the weekend.

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Vísir reports that hundreds gathered across the street from the Russian embassy on Túngata in downtown Reykjavík yesterday, a significantly larger crowd than last week. By all accounts these protests will likely continue until the invasion is ended.

While the Refugee Committee will soon meet to finalise a decision on how many Ukrainian refugees Iceland will accept, the Icelandic government has already taken measures of its own against the Russian government.

Yesterday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir announced that Iceland has closed its airspace to all Russian air traffic.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir announced that Iceland would not be issuing visas for Russian diplomats, businesspeople, MPs and other representatives of government to enter Iceland. Regular Russian citizens are exempted from this entry ban. Þórdís added that more measures may be put into play soon.

While no formal decision has yet been taken on when nor how many refugees from Ukraine Iceland is going to accept, Þórdís said that the pressure is on to act quickly, so a decision can likely be expected in the days to come.

On the lighter side, Icelandic telecom Vodafone is now offering toll-free calls to Ukraine. Shortly after this news broke, Hringdu offered the same through March 15th, longer if need be, put in place retroactively to February 22nd. On the heels of this, Nova announced toll-free calls to Ukraine through the entire month of March, and Síminn offers the same, retroactive to February 1st.