Ukrainian activists confronted a pro-Russian Immortal Regiment march in Amsterdam on May 2, turning a staged commemoration into a moment of accountability that triggered a coordinated propaganda response across Russian state media and Dutch proxy outlets.
The march, organised by a group called Platform for Peace and Solidarity, drew dozens of participants to Dam Square carrying portraits of relatives who fought in World War II, alongside Russian and Soviet flags, to the sound of Soviet-era music. The event was timed not only to Victory Day but also to the anniversary of the May 2, 2014 clashes in Odesa — a date that features prominently in Kremlin narratives justifying Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Partway through the procession, a small group of Ukrainian activists from the Free Defenders movement pushed to the front and unfurled a large banner reading “Mortal Regiment”. They also held photographs of Russian soldiers implicated in war crimes in Ukraine, including the bombing of Mariupol and the mass killings in Bucha. “For us, this is an unpleasant and painful topic, because some of us are from occupied territories,” Maksym, a co-founder of the Free Defenders movement, told the Kyiv Independent. “And we were like, no — it’s really hard to see this happening right here. Because who, if not us?”
Video footage showed Natalia Vorontsova, also known as Nata Heezen, running toward the Ukrainian activists in an attempt to tear down their banner. Her appearance was not incidental.
The Network Behind the March
Vorontsova is one of the central figures in a pro-Russian activist network that has operated in the Netherlands for over a decade. Originally from Voronezh, Russia, she has lived in the Netherlands for more than 20 years. As the Kyiv Independent’s earlier investigation documented, she is a co-organiser of Vredesdemonstratie — “Peace Demonstration” in Dutch — a group that presents itself as a peace initiative while campaigning against Western military aid to Ukraine and for accommodation with Moscow. She maintains close ties with Russian state media: TASS and RIA Novosti correspondents regularly attend Vredesdemonstratie events and interview Vorontsova, and the resulting coverage is later reshared within the group’s own networks — creating a feedback loop between local activism and Moscow’s international messaging.
In 2016, Vorontsova joined a campaign to advocate against Ukraine’s European integration ahead of a Dutch referendum, which resulted in voters rejecting the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. NRC Handelsblad noted at the time that “whenever Russian interests are affected, these activists appear”, as The Battleground reported. In 2025, she and fellow activists staged a photo-op protest at Dam Square holding placards reading “Ukraine is evil for Dutch taxpayers” and “Zelenskyy! Stop killing your people!” — falsely claiming to represent Ukrainian voices.
The Platform for Peace and Solidarity, which organised the May 2 march, included explicit Odesa 2014 commemoration framing – a standard element of Kremlin messaging that portrays the 2014 deaths in Odesa as a massacre carried out by Ukrainian nationalists, used to justify Moscow’s military aggression.
How Russian State Media Framed It
Within hours of the Ukrainian counter-protest, Russian state media had a ready-made story — and the framing was uniform across outlets.
TASS led with a statement from the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands, which set the tone for all subsequent coverage: “Those who tried to disrupt the gathering were not subjects of the kingdom but an openly Nazi group of Ukrainian ‘refugees’ who are themselves hiding from the Zelenskyy regime on Dutch soil,” the embassy said. “This creates a completely surreal picture: Bandera supporters and Hitler admirers, hosted by local authorities, threaten Dutch citizens in the main square of the country.” The agency described the Ukrainian activists as “about 10 aggressively minded men in black masks” who “shouted neo-Nazi and Russophobic slogans” and “pursued the participants of the event, trying to break into the procession and obstruct it”.
- https://tass.com/politics/2126221
Gazeta.ru reported that the march took place “despite attempts by pro-Ukrainian activists to prevent its holding”, describing a scene in which “participants of the march were pursued by about a dozen men in black masks, who shouted anti-Russian and nationalist slogans, and also threatened those marching in the Immortal Regiment”.
- https://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2026/05/02/28384855.shtml
VZGLYAD used near-identical language, reporting that “a group of Ukrainians tried to prevent the holding of the Immortal Regiment march, shouting threats and nationalist slogans” and described the activists as carrying “a poster of offensive content, covered in red spots”. The outlet noted approvingly that “the representative of the Volunteer Corps noted the clear work of the Amsterdam police, which promptly stopped the provocation and ensured safety and order”.
- https://vz.ru/news/2026/5/2/1415595.html
Izvestia reported that counter-demonstrators “shouted anti-Russian and nationalist slogans, threatened the protesters, and also brought a poster with an offensive inscription”, while noting that “the local police immediately stopped all attempts to disrupt the event”.
- https://iz.ru/en/node/2090075
RIA Novosti took a different approach, omitting the counter-protest entirely while focusing on the Odesa 2014 angle. The outlet described the 2014 events as occurring “after the state coup in Ukraine”, when “supporters of the Euromaidan and nationalists attacked opponents of the new authorities who held pro-Russian positions. After the tent camp of the ‘anti-Maidan’ on Kulikovo Field was smashed, its participants took refuge in the House of Trade Unions, which was then set on fire. As a result of the tragedy, 48 people died and more than 250 were injured”—reproducing the Kremlin’s standard reframing of the 2014 revolution as an illegal seizure of power and the Odesa deaths as a deliberate massacre.
- https://ria.ru/20260502/amsterdam-2090191074.html
The Dutch Proxy Layer
The Russian Embassy’s Telegram statement — the same one cited by TASS — was picked up and republished by Dutch-language proxy outlets within days, with no independent verification and no alternative framing.
NineForNews.nl published its article on May 5 under the headline “Neo-Nazi group of Ukrainian refugees disrupts commemorative march in Amsterdam.” The piece reproduced the embassy’s language almost verbatim.” The Russian embassy in the Netherlands has lashed out fiercely at Ukrainian demonstrators who protested in Amsterdam on Sunday during the annual commemorative march of the so-called Immortal Regiment,” it opened. “In a statement on Telegram, the embassy speaks of an ‘openly neo-Nazi group of refugees from Ukraine’ who tried to disrupt the gathering.” The outlet quoted the embassy’s conclusion directly: “A surreal picture emerges: Bandera supporters and admirers of Hitler, accepted by the local authorities, threaten Dutch citizens on the main square of the country.” The article used a photograph not from the May 2 event but from a Vredesdemonstratie gathering in October 2023 – a detail not disclosed to readers:
- https://www.ninefornews.nl/neonazistische-groep-vluchtelingen-uit-oekraine-verstoort-herdenkingsmars-in-amsterdam/
Netherlands.news-pravda.com, the Dutch-language arm of the Kremlin-linked Pravda network, published at least four separate articles on the event between May 2 and May 4. One reproduced the embassy’s full statement under the headline “Comment by the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands to TASS regarding provocations by Ukrainian neo-Nazis during the ‘Immortal Regiment’ march in Amsterdam”, concluding with the embassy’s charge that the counter-protest “clearly shows who the Dutch authorities have given shelter to”. Another framed the march itself in celebratory terms: “Songs of the war years, portraits of heroes and the Russian tricolour in the centre of Amsterdam — the ‘Immortal Regiment’ action — gratitude to the generation of winners”, presenting the event as a spontaneous outpouring of historical memory. A third item carried the headline “Katyusha in the heart of Amsterdam: the Immortal Regiment campaign has reached the Dutch capital”.
- https://netherlands.news-pravda.com/en/world/2026/05/04/12433.html
- https://netherlands.news-pravda.com/en/world/2026/05/04/12432.html
- https://netherlands.news-pravda.com/en/netherlands/2026/05/03/12401.html
- https://netherlands.news-pravda.com/en/world/2026/05/03/12394.html
Neither outlet contacted Ukrainian activists for comment. Neither acknowledged the Free Defenders movement’s stated purpose or the war crimes documentation the activists carried. NineForNews.nl did not disclose that its photograph was from a different event entirely.
The Asymmetry
The episode illustrates a dynamic that recurs across Russian influence operations in Western Europe. A small, locally organised event — attended by roughly 50 people according to RIA Novosti’s own reporting — was amplified by Russian state media into an international incident involving “neo-Nazi refugees” threatening Dutch citizens. Dutch mainstream media did not cover the event at all. No official reaction came from Dutch authorities or politicians. NineForNews.nl itself acknowledged that no official response from Dutch authorities to the Russian embassy’s accusations was known at the time of publication.
The Ukrainian counter-protest, meanwhile, was organised by a handful of activists, most from occupied Ukrainian territories, who decided that silence was not an option. “We don’t have many like-minded supporters,” Maksym told the Kyiv Independent. “Few people would have joined, but we still managed to do everything.”
The Immortal Regiment march was initially conceived as a grassroots initiative for families to honour relatives who fought in World War II. In Amsterdam in 2026, it was organised by a group with documented ties to pro-Kremlin activism, timed to a propaganda anniversary, amplified by Russian state media, and defended by proxy outlets that translated Moscow’s talking points into Dutch — word for word, without a photograph that even matched the event. What the Ukrainian activists understood, and what the propaganda response confirmed, is that the march was never only about remembrance.
