Four detained as Tel Aviv joins world in protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Read More

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv on Thursday, protesting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and expressing solidarity with Kyiv.

Many of the protesters were members of Israel’s Ukrainian community. Four people were arrested during the demonstration for spraying graffiti on the embassy’s gate.

Not just Ukraine: ‘Putin uses Iran to make America look weak.’ LISTEN

“The police will allow for freedom of expression and protest, but not permit violating the law and public order,” a police statement read.

Demonstrations against Russian President Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine took place in a number of cities across the world, including in Moscow and Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg.

Russian Police detained 1,667 people at rallies in 53 cities across the country, the OVD-Info rights monitor said, easily the biggest tally since last year’s crushing of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s network ushered in an ice age in activism.

Protesters defied a warning issued on Thursday by the Investigative Committee, a kind of Russian answer to the FBI, that explicitly threatened criminal action and even jail time for people calling for or taking part in protests.

“I was detained on my way out of the house,” Marina Litvinovich, a Moscow-based activist, wrote on Telegram after she called on Russians in a Facebook post on Thursday morning to protest later that evening.

U.S. freezes Russian banks over Ukraine invasion; Biden: Sanctions on Putin ‘on the table’

‘I don’t know why he’s there’: Russian mothers say soldiers tricked into going to Ukraine

Ukraine crisis? Time to call it the Putin crisis

“We will be cleaning up this mess for years to come. Not even us. But our children and grandchildren,” she said as she announced the protest. “All we see is the agony of a dying man. Alas, Russia is in agony.”

A person is detained by police during an anti-war protest, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine, in Moscow, Russia.REUTERS/Denis Kaminev

Dissent came from unusually mainstream figures such as Ivan Urgant, one of Russia’s most famous television comedians, who wrote on Instagram: “Fear and Pain. NO TO WAR.”

Maxim Galkin, a television presenter and singer, said: “I’ve been in touch with my relatives and friends from Ukraine since morning! I can’t explain in words what I feel! How is this possible! No war can be justified! No to war!”

Others included Fedor Smolov, a footballer for Russia’s national soccer team, Russia’s former no. 1 tennis player Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov, chief editor of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper.

Protests against Russia were also planned in several major U.S. cities on Thursday, calling on Putin to halt the missile and troop assault that left 57 people killed on the first day of the invasion.

The earliest known protest occurred outside Russia’s embassy in Washington shortly after news broke that Russian forces had launched a massive attack against Ukraine.

Local news reports showed dozens of protesters in the U.S. capital waving Ukrainian flags and chanting “stop Russian aggression.”

Additional protests were scheduled for Thursday in Washington, New York City, Houston, and Denver, according to social media posts.