Russian Feminists Stage Anti-War Protests in 100 Cities

Russian feminists staged anti-war protests across nearly 100 cities to mark International Women’s Day on Tuesday as Moscow ended the second week of its bloody invasion of Ukraine.

The Feminist Anti-War Resistance group said supporters across 94 Russian and international cities laid flowers at monuments and embassies. 

“There are more of us, our network is getting tighter and tighter. It is only by coming together that we will stop this war,” it said in a post on its Telegram channel.

Images shared by the Avtozak Telegram channel showed bouquets of flowers at World War II monuments as well as at the Kievskaya metro station's mural — which is dedicated to Russian-Ukrainian friendship — in central Moscow.

The station was later cleared of all flowers by several police units, Avtozak reported less than an hour later.

The Telegram channel also published videos of St. Petersburg police detaining activists, including several officers wrestling a man to the ground.

Independent monitors said at least 93 people, at least 60 of them in Moscow, were detained across 10 cities on Tuesday. 

Nearly 14,000 anti-war protesters have been apprehended since President Vladimir Putin ordered an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Thousands of Russian cultural, academic, political and other figures have spoken out against the war through social media posts and online petitions.

More than 2 million people have fled war-ravaged Ukraine into neighboring countries since the start of Russia's military campaign, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency.