Russian police arrested over 3,000 people protesting against the country’s war with Ukraine on Sunday.
Protesters across Russia rallied against the country’s invasion of Ukraine, chanting the phrase “No to war!” before being arrested by police, according to the New York Times. OVD-Info, an activist group that tracks arrests, reported detentions in 49 different Russian cities.
“Are you here to support the fascists?” the officer asked the protesters before calling over other officers and telling them. “Arrest them all.”
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Protests in Russia against the country’s invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, the same day Russia began its invasion, and have been ongoing since then. On the first day of protests, OVD-Info stated at least 1,675 people were detained for their participation in the protests, with 919 of them in Moscow.
The arrests of the protesters on Sunday come amid a rising number of sanctions against Russia. Thousands of Russians have fled the country in the last 10 days amid the sanctions, including Russian film critic Anton Dolin, who told the outlet the country is suffering “a moral catastrophe.”
Some of the sanctions facing Russia include Switzerland freezing the assets of Putin and hundreds of other people sanctioned by the EU, as well as Singapore imposing financial restrictions against Russia in light of the war. The World Bank also said it has “stopped all its programs” in Russia and its European ally Belarus in response to the invasion.
Private companies have also taken action against Russia and Belarus, with Visa and Mastercard both suspending their services in the country on Sunday and American Express suspending operations in both Russia and Belarus. Social media platform TikTok also announced Sunday it will suspend livestreaming capabilities and the posting of new content in Russia in light of the country’s recent “fake news” law.
The Biden administration announced this week that it will shield Ukrainians already in the U.S. from deportation if their visas expire in the next 18 months. But experts are imploring President Joe Biden to send help to Ukraine, and Europe broadly, as the United Nations estimates that 1 million people have fled the war-torn country.
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Ukraine’s Security Service stated in a Facebook post on Sunday that the Russians were firing at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology from Grad launchers. Inside the institute is nuclear material and a reactor, which the service said could lead to a “large-scale ecological disaster” if hit. The attack comes two days after Russians attacked the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, one of the world’s largest nuclear facilities.
