Russian authorities arrest anti-war protesters throughout the country

Throughout Russia, police have begun arresting citizens for protesting and placing flowers at memorials to mark the one-year anniversary of the full-scale war against Ukraine.

Update: By the end of the day, at least 54 people were arrested in 14 Russian cities, reports OVD Info.

In Barnaul, at least five people have been arrested, according to the Telegram channel Avtozak live. Four of them had placed anti-war signs on the city’s central square and laid flowers next to them, while the fifth was targeted for carrying a sign that read “Enough silence.”

In Yekaterinburg, at least eight people were arrested while leaving flowers at the city’s “Masks of Sorrow” monument, a sculpture dedicated to victims of political repression. The group of arrestees included two journalists and at least two minors, according to the human rights organization OVD-Info.

In St. Petersburg, according to Bumaga and OVD-Info, at least nine people were arrested for placing flowers at a memorial to Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.

In Korolyov, a city in the Moscow region, a young woman was arrested for holding a sign that read “I support peace.” Another woman in Irkutsk was arrested for a sign reading “I demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. In Vyksa, a city in the Nizhny Novgorod region, city councilman Dmitry Mochalin was arrested for protesting with a sign that read “Peace to Ukraine. Soldiers go home.”

Russians also held solitary protests in Rostov-on-Don, Magnitogorsk, Vladivostok, and other cities.