A woman was "incensed" after seeing a Ukrainian flag being defaced with a pair of scissors in a Wirral village.
Rachel Price, from West Kirby, was driving through Greasby when she spotted a woman cutting into a Ukrainian flag that was hanging from a road sign. The woman cut pieces off the flag and dropped them into a wheelie bin, but left some of it flying.
Angered by what she saw, Rachel told the ECHO : "On the way back from school - where the sign for Coronation Park is on Old Greasby Road - I saw a lady with a pair of scissors cutting the Ukrainian flag. These flags, I’ve seen them on various motorway bridges and things like that - there are quite a few of them around.
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"I did a u-turn in the road, came back, parked my car and by then, she’d thrown part of the flag in the wheelie bin. I said to her ‘I’ve just witnessed what you’ve done. What are you doing cutting down a flag?’
"So she said, ‘I’ve lived in this country for generations - we go back generations’, or wording to that effect. Then she asked ‘Have you?’. I said ‘yes’ but I don’t see how that’s relevant."
"She then said ‘We don’t want a war, there will be no war’. I said that putting up a Ukrainian flag, in my opinion, is not agreeing with war, it’s showing support for a humanitarian crisis where people are being displaced from their families, loved ones are being killed - their lives have been ripped apart."
Rachel believes that the rather strange act of cutting the flag and then dropping into a wheelie bin was pointed. She added: "The fact she used scissors - she didn’t just go and take it off the lamppost - she’s definitely sending a message." Rachel continued: "She could have gone and done this at night, but she wanted to be seen, I think."
For Rachel, the fact that she has seen a number of Ukrainian flags around where she lives is a point of pride, showing that people in the UK wish to do what they can to help. She added: "As far as I see the flag, it’s to support people in Ukraine and what’s going on. Potentially we’ve got Ukrainian refugees coming over here, how are they going to feel if they saw a cut flag?"
She continued: "I was just incensed. I just couldn’t believe she did it."
Over 150,000 British people have volunteered to host Ukrainian refugees and the UK launched the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme last week, beginning the formal application process. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said yesterday (March 21) that some 9,500 visas have been issued to refugees under the Ukraine Family Scheme.
