February 24, 2023, on a day when a year ago the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began, various antiwar and pro-Ukraine events were organized in many Russian cities and all over the world. Citizens of Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Lithuania and Poland demonstrated their support for Ukraine and its fight against the aggressor. Pro-Ukraine actions as well as public protests against Russian invasion took place in many cities of CIS. People brought candles, flags and flowers to the monuments and other sites of Ukrainian history and culture.
In many Russian cities activists attempted to hold protests. These actions were small in number of participants, but police suppressed any expressions of the anti-war thoughts and feelings.
According to the information of the oppositional anti-war movement Vesna (Spring), grass-root memorials were created in 44 Russian cities, and in 11 cities single-person pickets were organized. In some Russian cities one could see anti-war banners, graffiti and green ribbons, a symbol of the protest against the war in Ukraine.
In Moscow from the early morning people brought flowers to the monument to the great Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka, but after some hours detentions started. Mass arrests of the participants of the anti-war protests also took place in Saint-Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.
Grass-root protests took place in Barnaul, Yaroslavl, Korolev (Moscow region), Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and many other Russian cities. In Kazan a grass-root memorial appeared in Lenin’s garden, near the monument to the victims of political repressions.
Protest actions timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Russian invasion to Ukraine has shown that even having no chance to express freely their attitude to the war, many people in Russia are still ready to protest against the aggressive politics of their own government.
Source: Reuters
A photo from: www.voanews.com/