Russians mark Ukraine war anniversary with flowers, arrests

By DASHA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russians in Moscow and other cities brought flowers to Ukrainian poets and held one-person pickets with antiwar slogans to mark the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian media and rights groups reported at least a dozen detentions on Friday. OVD-Info, a legal aid group that tracks political arrests, said at least eight people were detained in Yekaterinburg after they brought flowers to the city’s monument to victims of political repression. The Kremlin’s sweeping crackdown on dissent has spiked to unprecedented levels since the start of the war. Russians all across the country actively protested during the first week of the invasion, but large rallies quickly fizzled after thousands of demonstrators were detained.