More than 1,000 anti-war protesters have been detained across Russia on Wednesday as residents rallied against a “partial” military mobilization declared by President Vladimir Putin for the war in Ukraine.
The Vesna anti-war opposition movement and supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny called on Russians nationwide to take to the streets on Wednesday evening to oppose Putin’s decision to beef up its forces in Ukraine with 300,000 reservists.
Protests fanned across most Russian regions, Meduza, reported with independent group OVD-Info reporting more than 1,000 arrests in 38 towns by 21.30, Moscow time.
In Moscow, police arrested 394 people, in St Petersburg, 376 arrests were made and 40 people were detained in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city.
Here are photos of Wednesday’s anti-war protests and arrests.
Putin claimed the call-up was necessary because the Russian military is facing “not only neo-Nazi formations, but what is effectively the entire military machine of the collective West,” Meduza reported.
In the Siberian city of Irkutsk, at least 10 of 60 protesters who gathered at a central square were detained, local activists said.
Small groups of protesters also gathered in Ulan-Ude, the capital of the republic of Buryatia; Yakutsk, the capital of the republic of Sakha; and the Far East city of Khabarovsk, the 7×7 news outlet reported.
Protesters in Ulan-Ude were seen carrying handwritten signs reading “No war! No mobilization!” and “Our husbands, fathers and brothers don’t want to kill other husbands and fathers.”
In the Siberian city of Tomsk, a female protester carrying a sign reading “Hug me if you are also scared” was among the 15 people detained shortly after the start of the protest, according to local Telegram news channel Ulitsa Barkhatnaya.
In Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest city, video posted on social media showed a protester shouting “I don’t want to die for Putin or for you!”
Putin announces ‘partial mobilization’ and threatens nuclear retaliation
