The murder of a Russian deserter who lived in La Vila Joiosa hiding under a Ukrainian identity – whose investigation is not yet closed, according to what the Spanish Government said yesterday – has once again placed the province of Alicante in the focus of information related to a military invasion which is about to complete its two-year duration without a solution, not even a ceasefire, in sight on the horizon.

And in the week in which the large Ukrainian community is preparing several demonstrations and events in different parts of the Valencian Community in an attempt to regain attention and remember that the need for help is still valid, remember that Alicante is not only a refuge for thousands of Ukrainians displaced by the war, but also many Russians. In fact, with the exception of Ukraine and Colombia, Russia is the country that has registered the most residents in Alicante in the recent period.

It cannot be forgotten that before the war Alicante was already the Spanish province that concentrated the highest percentage of the Russian population, 0.88%, ahead of Girona and Malaga, where residents of Russian origin represented 0.73% and 0. 44% of the census, respectively.

But if, as a result of the attack by Putin’s army, the Ukrainian colony in the Valencian Community doubled in 2022, reaching 45,759 people, increasing by 23,617 inhabitants, the Russian population grew by 23%, increasing by 5,363 people, so that it reached the 29,003 inhabitants. Among them, a large number of women and children of school age, but also men of military age who wished to avoid conscription.

This population flow continued throughout last year. According to the Continuous Population Statistics of the INE (which does not offer definitive data but discloses data related to the main nationalities, which allows analyzing whether migratory dynamics are changing), Russians were the third group with the most nationals registered in the province of Alicante in the first half of 2023, adding 2,390 new registered residents to those already existing, only behind Colombia (6,100) and Ukraine (4,140).

In no other Spanish province are Russians among the most numerous immigrants or in Spain as a whole (the INE only publishes the first 3 countries in the case of the provinces, the first ten in the state count).

Many of them request political asylum, to the point that, according to data from the Refugee Reception Center, Russia, whose requests have tripled due to forced recruitment and the deterioration of human rights in the country, especially for the LGTBIQ group , occupies ninth place on a list in which Venezuela, Colombia and Peru stand out with almost 80% of the applications (14,308) and Honduras, Cuba, Morocco, Nicaragua, Senegal, Russia and El Salvador follow on the list.

Pablo Gil, honorary consul of Ukraine in Valencia, is aware of this flow and how the context is conducive to the actions of people linked to the Russian regime in our territory. And he admits that the La Vila event allows the Valencians to renew their interest in a drama that, due to the passage of time, has taken a backseat in recent months.

Precisely this Saturday, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the beginning of the invasion, a large event has been called in Valencia, which will culminate in a rally at 7 p.m. in the Plaza de la Reina, a demonstration in Alicante, at 12 in the Plaza de Luceros, and similar events in Gandia and Calp.