More than 4,300 detained in Russia during anti-war demonstrations

Authorities detained more than 4,300 people who participated in anti-war demonstrations across Russia, Reuters reported on Sunday. 

An independent protest monitoring group said that 4,366 Russian residents from 56 different cities had been detained, according to the news service, which added that Russia’s interior ministry said about 3,500 protesters had been detained. The ministry reportedly added that more than 5,200 residents participated in the demonstrations. 

“The screws are being fully tightened – essentially we are witnessing military censorship,” Maria Kuznetsova, a spokeswoman for the monitoring group, told the news service. 

“We are seeing rather big protests today, even in Siberian cities where we only rarely saw such numbers of arrests.”

Multiple videos posted on social media showed thousands of demonstrators chanting “No to war!” and “Shame on you!” toward the Russian government. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to a series of protests and international sanctions against Moscow. U.S. companies in a variety of sectors have also moved to end business with Russia. 

In response, Ukrainian citizens are fleeing the country. The U.N. Refugee Agency shared on Sunday that 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens have fled since the start of the invasion. 

Reuters noted that Russian authorities arrested a similar number of protesters in January, 2021 who demanded the release of Alexei Navalny. The opposition leader was arrested by Russian authorities upon arriving in the nation after he recovered from a nerve agent poisoning attempt.