'Hands off Ukraine!' Russian protesters, celebrities risk arrest to denounce Putin's war
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MOSCOW – Risking arrest and intimidation, Russian citizens took to the streets across the country Thursday night and into Friday to protest President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Russians with prominent platforms – celebrity actors and television presenters, stand-up comedians, writers, musicians, pop and rock stars – also risked their state contracts and jobs to make anti-war statements.
Even the face of the Russia's weekly late show on Channel One, Ivan Urgant, spoke out against Putin’s decision to invade.
“Fear and pain, no to the war,” Urgant posted on his Instagram account.
In the wake of his post, Urgant’s show disappeared from the scheduled programs on Channel One and did not air at the usual time. The state-owned TV station insisted its star performer continued to work and the schedule was covering “important social-political events."
Putin's invasion of Ukraine has drawn ire and outrage from the across the globe. The U.S. and its European allies moved to sanction the Russian leader and his national security advisers on Friday as the invasion threatened to topple Ukraine's democratic government.
Ukrainian officials reported at least 137 deaths on their side and claimed hundreds on the Russian one. Russian authorities released no casualty figures. Bridges and schools have been damaged in the shelling, which also sliced through a Kyiv apartment building.
Inside Russia, Putin has increasingly cracked down on any form of protest or dissent. He jailed his chief political opponent, Alexie Navalny, last year. The Kremlin then moved to shutter Navalny's anti-corruption organization, labeling his employees "extremists."
But many Russians have seen horrifying images from the Ukraine conflict, broadcast by independent media. Some show the Russian army destroying apartment blocks with people inside, a tank rolling over a vehicle with an elderly man inside, bleeding women crying and pleading for an end to the fighting.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and journalist Dmitry Muratov said in a video that the war was Russia’s “trouble” and only a powerful anti-war movement could stop the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of Russians signed a “No to War” petition as the movement continued to grow.
Sergei Bobovnikov, an antique art expert, and his friends protested against the war in St. Petersburg.
“Our anti-war rally began at the cigar club in the city center. We first discussed the suffering of Ukraine, the atrocities and then made a decision to join the street rally,” Bobovnikov told USA TODAY.
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Police detained more than 1,500 anti-war protesters across Russia on Thursday night, but some were not deterred.
Hundreds of people crowded the central avenue, Nevsky Prospect.
"No to war!" they chanted. "Hands off Ukraine!"
Karen Shainyan, a well-known YouTube blogger and defender of LGBT rights, was also among those joining rally in Moscow on Thursday.
“This is not just a war with Ukraine, this war is against us, Russians, too,” Shainyan wrote on social media. “There are many of us, Russians who are against this war.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russian citizens risk arrest to protest Putin's war in Ukraine
