More than 1,700 people have been arrested in Russia after protests against the invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian President demands: “Fight against this war.”
- The conflict between Russia* and the Ukraine* escalated.
- Now more and more Russians are opposing Vladimir Putin’s actions Ukraine conflict.*
- All news about the current situation can be found here in the ticker.
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+++ 2 p.m.: In Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin sometimes voiced loud criticism. The slogan of the people who took to the streets on Thursday (02/24/2022) was “No to war”. According to Ravina Shamdasanin, the UN assumes that “more than 1,800 demonstrators have been arrested” (see update from 9.45 a.m.). The spokeswoman for the UN human rights office told journalists in Geneva that “the arrest of people exercising their right to freedom of expression or peaceful assembly” constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of liberty.
Among those arrested was the sociologist Grigory Yudin, who is one of the most well-known critics of Putin in Russia. Yudin described the Ukraine war as “the most senseless of all wars in our history”. Under no circumstances should you fight with the people of Ukraine, because if you don’t succeed in communicating with them, “then we won’t be able to be friends with anyone. We’re left alone against the whole world and we’re losing hard.”
Yudin spent the night in the hospital. As the human rights organization OWD-Info reported, he was beaten at the police station after his arrest and lost consciousness. Judin spoke up on Facebook this morning. He thanked for the support, meanwhile he had been released from the hospital: “If there is so much love and kindness in the world, the darkness has to go.”
Ukraine war: Selenskyi appeals to the people in Russia
+++ 12.00 p.m.: The protests in Russia against the invasion of troops into Ukraine have not gone unnoticed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During his nightly speech, Zelenskyi also addressed the Russian people directly: “Dear citizens of the Russian Federation, as I said earlier, the bombing of residential areas of the hero city of Kiev began last night. It all reminds me of 1941.” At that time, after Hitler’s Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the Second World War began for the then communist empire, to which Ukraine belonged.
Referring to the people who demonstrated against the war in Moscow and other cities despite the threat of punishment, Zelenskyj added: “All citizens who are protesting: We see you. That means you heard us. That means you’re starting to trust us. fight for us Fight the war.” Uniformed Russian security forces sometimes used brute force. There were more than 1,700 arrests during the protests in 55 cities in Russia (see update from 9:45 a.m.).
Ukraine war: Nobel Prize winner Muratov attacks Putin
Update from Friday, February 25th, 2022, 9.45 a.m.: According to activists, almost 1,700 people were arrested in Russia during protests against the invasion of Ukraine. As the human rights organization OVD-Info reported, thousands of people took to the streets, especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg, despite a ban on demonstrations.
Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov has warned of serious consequences for Russia from the attack on neighboring Ukraine. “(President Vladimir) Putin has done irreparable damage to his country,” Muratov told the BBC in Moscow. On February 24, Russia’s future was stolen, said the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper critical of the Kremlin. “Our peace-loving Russian people will now feel the hatred of the world. Because we started World War III in the heart of Europe.”
Novaya Gazeta was published this Friday with a bilingual title in Russian and Ukrainian. “Because we do not recognize Ukraine as an enemy and Ukrainian as the language of the enemy. And we will never recognize this,” Muratov said, according to the newspaper.
After the invasion of Ukraine: Russia is cracking down on the wave of protests
+++ 8.30 p.m.: According to activists, almost 1,700 people have been arrested in Russia during protests against the invasion of Ukraine. According to its own information, the human rights organization OVD-Info registered at least 1,391 arrests in 51 Russian cities by Thursday evening, including more than 700 in the capital Moscow and more than 340 in the second largest city, St. Petersburg. AFP journalists observed dozens of arrests on Moscow’s Pushkin Square.
+++ 7.45 p.m.: At least 788 people have been arrested during anti-war protests in Russia. This was announced by the human rights organization OVD-Info on Thursday (02/24/2022). The number of arrests and the number of participants is significantly higher than initially reported (see initial report).
The arrests at demonstrations directed against the invasion of Ukraine took place in 42 cities. Most of the participants gathered in Moscow, where around 2,000 people protested on Pushkin Square alone, according to reporters from the AFP news agency on site. More than 330 people were arrested in the capital. According to AFP reporters, around 1,000 people were also involved in the demonstrations in the second largest city, St. Petersburg, which had been banned by the Russian authorities.
Ukraine conflict: Russia cracks down on anti-war protests – 167 arrests
First report from February 24th, 2022, 6:34 p.m.: Moscow/St. Petersburg – The Ukraine conflict has escalated, Russia has a wave of attacks* started on the neighboring country. The procedure Vladimir Putin’s* has caused outrage in large parts of the world. Further sanctions have been announced.
But domestically, too, many oppose Russia’s actions against Ukraine. After calls for demonstrations, the Russian authorities protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine prohibited and those taking part in such rallies were threatened with fines. Anyone who takes part in rallies on the “tense foreign policy situation” will be prosecuted. Calls to participate in such events would also “entail serious legal consequences,” the investigative committee said, according to the AFP news agency. But that didn’t stop many demonstrators.
Ukraine war: Demonstrators against the conflict take to the streets in Russia
Despite the threats, anti-war demonstrations took place in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other regions – the police cracked down. The security forces arrested dozens of people on Pushkin Square in Moscow, according to journalists from the AFP news agency. Around 20 demonstrators were arrested in St. Petersburg.
The civil rights portal Owd-Info counted 167 arrests in more than 20 Russian cities by early Thursday evening (February 24, 2022), reports the German Press Agency. The organization published photos on the Telegram social network of people holding up placards expressing solidarity with Ukraine, alone or in small groups. Demonstrators are said to have been beaten during the arrests.
Conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalates: Alexei Navalny becomes clear
However, the Russian opposition movement has been significantly weakened in the past two years. Key leaders were imprisoned or exiled. the imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny* had sharply criticized the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “I am against this war,” he said. The “war between Russia and Ukraine” is a maneuver by the Kremlin to distract from the domestic political problems in Russia. (slo/vbu with dpa/afp)*fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
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