Five children have been arrested for bringing flowers to the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow and protest with posters against the war together with their mothers, as reported by the anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova and by the Russian opponent Ilya Yashin, who has exposed on Twitter the images of minors being transported in trucks with cells holding the banners that they themselves had made to support the Ukrainian people.
Arkhipova has explained on Facebook that minors, between 7 and 11 years oldThey went to leave flowers at the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow with their mothers, and carrying signs that read ‘No to war’. In the main video of this news you can see how one of the women explains to her daughter, who cried from inside a cellthat the goal of the arrest “is for fewer people to get together and say they are against the war.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary: just kids in vans behind an anti-war banner. This is Putin’s Russia, folks. You live here”, the Russian opponent Ilya Yashin has asserted on his Twitter account, where he has shared the harsh images of the arrest of minors. In one of them you can see a girl sitting in a Moscow Police department, next to an agent, while in another you can see the poster of a minor that includes the flag of Russia and Ukraine united with a pink heart next to it.
“We were all taught in school that all children should be against war. When we were little, we drew anti-war posters and wall newspapers on our desks. And that’s fucking fine. Children must be soaked in anti-war ideas with their mother’s milk. And now it is equated with extremism,” she lamented.
Arkhipova has assured that the minors were released at night, although they will have to go through a trial. In addition, the mothers had to face to “threats” that their children’s custody would be withdrawn.
At least 780 people have been arrested in 34 Russian cities in the last day during the protests against the war in Ukraine, which brings to 7,623 the number of people arrested since the demonstrations began a week ago. There are at least 353 detainees in Russia’s second largest city, Saint Petersburg, and 304 in the country’s capital, Moscow, according to the civil rights portal OVD-Info.
The invasion of Ukraine is leading many Russian citizens to protest against the war in the streetswhile the security forces are repressing any kind of demonstration and arresting dissidents.
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs warned Russian citizens on Thursday, February 24, that the authorities will take “all necessary measures” to maintain law and order in the protests and warned that the Police will arrest all participants in unauthorized actions if “provocative or aggressive” actions are carried out against the agents.
Source: Lasexta
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