People honored the memory of the two murder victims with a vigil and makeshift shrine in the nation’s capital
Antifa has vandalized and defaced a memorial dedicated to the late conservative commentator Charlie Kirk and Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Vienna, Austrian Freisinnige (Freelance) party chairman Christian Ebner said on Sunday.
The makeshift memorial had been set up outside the US Embassy in the Austrian capital following the murders, both of which have inflamed partisan divisions in the US.
During a vigil for Zarutska and Kirk on Friday, people placed photographs, flowers US flags and letters at the wall of the embassy, and lit candles.
The memorial has been vandalized and torn down by Antifa activists as of Sunday, according to Ebner.
“THEIR LIVES MATTERED”
Tributes to Iryna Zarutska and Charlie Kirk, outside Embassy of the United States of America in Vienna, Austria.
According to Austrian influencer Alexander Ehrlich, who was at the vigil, the group interrupted a moment of silence for the two murder victims by chanting slogans.
🇦🇹 Antifa disturbs Charlie Kirk commemoration
Vienna (Austria), 12.09.2025: the minute of silence for Iryna Zarutska and Charlie Kirk at the US-embassy was disturbed by so-called “Antifa”, shouting their slogans into the moment of commemoration and prayer.
Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, was brutally murdered by career criminal Decarlos Brown Jr. on a North Carolina train last month. The graphic video of the unprovoked stabbing was released by the local transit system last week and went viral.
Conservative influencer Kirk was fatally shot during a public appearance at a Utah university on Wednesday.
The murders have sparked intense debate over media bias, public safety, and the increasingly violent culture war, with conservative figures accusing liberal media of ignoring Zarutska’s death until long after it had gone viral on social media.
US President Donald Trump has strongly condemned both killings and promised to pursue those he accused of funding and fueling “radical left” political violence in the US. He has also said he would push for the death penalty for both killers.
