Anti-war protesters rock Russia, over 700 get arrested

Russian police have detained more than 700 people at anti-war protests across dozens of cities after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to invade Ukraine, an independent monitor said Thursday.

Around 2,000 people gathered near Pushkin Square in central Moscow, while up to 1,000 people gathered in the former imperial capital Saint Petersburg, according to AFP correspondents at the scene.

The invasion of Ukraine is taking place during an unprecedented crackdown on the Russian opposition, with most protest leaders assassinated, jailed or forced out of the country.

Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who used to mobilise Russia’s largest protests against Putin, is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a penal colony outside Moscow.

A number of Russian activists called on social media for people to take to the streets after Putin launched an offensive on Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday.

In Moscow, protesters were seen massing around Pushkin Square chanting “No to war!”

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he had no other option but to order what he has called a special operation against Ukraine, saying all of Moscow’s previous attempts to change the security situation had come to nothing.

Protests against the invasion also took place in cities around the world, including in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Israel and elsewhere.