Russia-Ukraine crisis: According to an independent tracker, more than 7,000 people have been detained across Russia to protest the invasion of Ukraine
Dozens of anti-war protesters were detained in Moscow and St Petersburg on Wednesday as voices against President Vladimir Putin's special military operation in Ukraine grew louder and louder. Prisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has called for daily anti-war protests in Russia. Calling Putin an "apparently mad king", Navalny said the Russians should tell the world that neither all Russians support war.
"We can't wait a day longer. Wherever you are. Russia, Belarus or the other side of the planet. Go out every weekday at 19.00 at the main square of your city and at 14.00 on weekends and holidays," she said by her spokesperson. said in a statement published on Twitter.
As the Russian military is expanding its attack on Ukraine, back home protesters holding posters condemning the war, chanting 'not for war', marched through cities. The independent watchdog group OVD-Info says a total of more than 7,000 people have been detained in Russia in protest against the invasion of Ukraine.
Navalny, one of Putin's most prominent opponents, was jailed last year after returning from Germany for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison Siberia with a nerve agent. He said he had been sentenced on false charges.
"I'm from the USSR. I was born there. And the key phrase from there - from my childhood - was 'fight for peace'. I call on everyone to come out on the streets and fight for peace... is Putin Not Russia," Navalny said.