Russian law enforcement personnel arrested schoolchildren for anti-war protests where they showed support for Ukraine, calling the country's people "[their] friends."
The young kids were among the thousands that police have detained in several cities across the country as residents decried Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. A professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow, Alexandra Arkhipova, shared several images on Facebook showing young children detained at a police station in Moscow.
Arrest of Schoolchildren
Arkhipova's post said that two Russian women, Ekaterina Zavizion and her friend, Olga Alter, were with five children when they were detained while laying flowers at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow. The children were identified as boys and girls between the ages of seven and 11 and photographed still holding their hand-drawn "No War" posters.
Authorities then transported the mothers and their children to the Presnenskaya police station where officers quickly confiscated their phones. Law enforcement personnel then yelled at the mothers, telling them they could lose their parental rights and have the children placed in the custody of the Russian version of Child Protective Services, as per Fox News.
The signs that the children held up before being detained showed the Russian flag, a plus sign, the Ukrainian flag, an equal sign, followed by a heart. The arrest of the young kids and their mothers received the attention of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba who shared images of the incident.
The official said that the arrest of the young kids was another sign of the toll that Russian President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine was taking on children. He referred to Putin while he talked about the children, showing a picture of one behind bars, saying, "This is how scared the man is."
According to NPR, Arkhipova said that she relayed the details of the incident to the website OVD-info, which monitors potential police abuse cases in Russia. The site posted a video of what it said was the moment of the arrest of the schoolchildren. In the video, a child's cries could be heard echoing down the street where witnesses observed several police vehicles.
Thousands of Protesters
The OVD-info site said that children up to 14 years old cannot be legally detained for more than three hours. In a similar incident in a different region of the country, Yelena Osipova, a 77-year-old artist, was also taken into custody by a group of police while protesting against the war in St. Petersburg.
Thousands of Russian citizens have marched their way into the streets of the region to decry Putin's act of war against Ukraine. They have defied police threats amid authorities having a low tolerance for demonstrations and marches. It is believed that attending such demonstrations in Russia can have serious consequences such as fines, arrests, and even imprisonment.
OVD-info revealed that Russian authorities have already arrested more than 320 anti-war protesters across 33 cities. Since President Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine last Thursday, a total of 6,840 people have already been detained in various areas across the region, The Guardian reported.
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