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Thousands have been detained in anti-war protests across Russia

Since protests against the invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, nearly 13,000 people have been detained.

  • By Jonathan Franklin/NPR
Police detain a demonstrator during an action against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine resumed on Wednesday, with people taking to the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg and other Russian towns despite mass arrests.

 Dmitri Lovetsky / AP Photo

Police detain a demonstrator during an action against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine resumed on Wednesday, with people taking to the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg and other Russian towns despite mass arrests.

(Washington) — Russians in dozens of cities across the country have staged anti-war demonstrations, following a call by advisers close to jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

As of Sunday, the independent OVD-Info monitoring group reports over 4,500 were detained across 63 cities, with more than 2,100 in Moscow and more than 1,100 in St. Petersburg.

“The screws are being fully tightened — essentially we are witnessing military censorship,” Maria Kuznetsova, OVD-Info’s spokesperson, told Reuters.

Since protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, nearly 13,000 people have been detained across Russia, according to the group.

Given the number of protests, there was a heavy presence of special police forces patrolling near the Kremlin on Sunday, with Red Square sealed off. A similar scene played out near Palace Square in St. Petersburg — which has seen repeated crowds protest the war.

Vadim Ghirda / AP

People cross on an improvised path under a bridge that was destroyed by a Russian airstrike, while fleeing the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. What looked like a breakthrough cease-fire to evacuate residents from two cities in Ukraine quickly fell apart Saturday as Ukrainian officials said shelling had halted the work to remove civilians hours after Russia announced the deal. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Here are other key developments:

The death toll reached the hundreds. At least 364 Ukrainians have died since Russia invaded Ukraine and at least 759 have been injured, according to the United Nations. The actual toll is believed to be “considerably higher.”

Another cease-fire attempt failed. Russian forces broke a cease-fire for the second consecutive day when they opened fire on Mariupol, again forcing the port city to halt evacuations of civilians.

Thousands of people were detained for anti-war protests in Russia. Over 4,300 people across 56 cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, were detained over protesting President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to an independent monitoring group.

Western powers are in talks about a ban on Russian oil and gas imports. The U.S. and its allies are having an “active discussion” about banning such imports from Russia, while ensuring there’s enough of an oil supply for the rest of the world. The Biden administration fears what that could mean for gas prices, but an energy imports ban would also deprive Russia of a large source of revenue.

TikTok temporarily banned Russian content. The immensely popular video-sharing app is suspending all new content, including livestreams, from being uploaded from Russia. The company says it’s enforcing the ban as it reviews the implications of Russia’s new law that cracks down on independent media.

In-depth

Over 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine have crossed into neighboring countries in what the U.N. calls the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. See some of the faces of the crisis here.

Russia’s assault on Ukraine has devastating implications for world hunger. Experts outline six grim scenarios.

Earlier developments

You can read more news from Sunday here, as well as more in-depth reporting and daily recaps here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.

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