More than 170 arrested at anti-war protests

AIR strikes rocked Ukraine’s strategic Black Sea port of Odessa early yesterday, AFP reporters said, but there were no casualties, according to the army. The Russian defence ministry confirmed the strike.

The rocket attacks came as Russian forces and appeared to be withdrawing from the country’s north after Kyiv warned that Moscow was trying to consolidate troops in the south.

In Russia, police detained 176 people at the weekend for protesting against Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, an NGO said.

OVD-Info, which monitors arrests during protests, said police had detained at least 176 people in 14 cities in Russia.

An AFP journalist in Moscow witnessed more than 20 people detained by riot police under heavy snowfall in the capital’s central park, Zaryadye, a short distance from the Kremlin.

Police escorted away people sitting on park benches or just standing around without explaining the reasons for the detention, the reporter said.

One of the detained women held a bouquet of white tulips, while another several times exclaimed “No to war in Ukraine!” as she was being taken away.

A national sit-in on Saturday against what Moscow calls its “military operation” in Ukraine was announced on social media by activists in 30 Russian cities.

The organisers said they wanted to protest “the collapse of (Russia’s) economy” against President Vladimir Putin and to demand freedom for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. “Russia deserves peace, democracy and prosperity,” they said.

In Saint Petersburg, AFP saw multiple arrests near the legislative assembly where around 40 people gathered, although it was unclear how many were there to protest.

“Nobody will come, all the active ones were detained at previous protests,” said 30-year-old Sergei Gorelov, who said he came to “take a look and show support if necessary”.

Protesters risk fines and prison sentences by taking to the streets.

OVD-Info said that more than 15 000 people have been detained at rallies across the country to protest Russian military action in Ukraine.

In Kyrgyzstan, police detained around 20 activists who defied court bans on rallies against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Putin, an AFP correspondent said on Saturday.

The arrests in the capital Bishkek came as the gruelling conflict fuels pro- and anti-Moscow sentiment in ex-Soviet Central Asia, a five-country region tightly-tied to Russia.

Kyrgyzstan’s Kremlin-loyal president Sadyr Japarov had on Friday pleaded with protesters to limit their rally to a park in the city rather than march to the Russian embassy, as they had announced on social media.

Activists argued that the court rulings were unconstitutional.

Fellow Central Asian neighbour Kazakhstan has stricter anti-protest legislation, but permitted a large protest against its ally Moscow’s war in Ukraine in its largest city, Almaty, at the start of last month. The authorities refused to permit organisers to hold a follow-up demonstration just two weeks later.

Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan – the most populous country in Central Asia – have distanced themselves from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In Ukraine on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia was preparing “powerful strikes” in the south.

Russian forces were reportedly making a “rapid retreat” from northern areas around Kyiv and Chernigiv on Saturday as the Red Cross prepared for a fresh evacuation effort Mariupol.

“Russia is prioritising a different tactic: falling back on the east and south,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said on social media. He said that their aim was to “control a vast stretch of occupied territory and set up there in a powerful way”.

Ukrainian authorities estimate that 20000 people have been killed so far.

Meanwhile, the Russian military launched its spring draft on Friday, targeting 18-year-olds. Some said they were ready to fight in Ukraine if needed, while others planned to evade call-up.

Putin vowed last month that conscripts would not be sent to fight in Ukraine, where an estimated 1 000 Russian troops have been killed. But a Russian army spokesperson later said some conscripts had been mistakenly sent to Ukraine with some units. While most had returned to Russia, some have been taken prisoner.

In other news, US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Saturday that Washington was not interested in regime change in Russia a week after President Joe Biden said that Putin should no longer stay in power due to the military operation in Ukraine.

In his remarks in Warsaw last Saturday, Biden argued that “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia” and that the Russian president “cannot remain in power.”

The claims sparked criticism in the US and abroad, with Biden later clarifying that Washington was not pursuing a regime change policy in Russia. US State Secretary Antony Blinken also said on Monday that the US does not work toward regime change in Russia or anywhere else.

“Let me be very clear. We are not into the regime change. That is not our policy. Period,” Harris said.

However, she noted that sanctions imposed against Russia will remain in effect as long as the “atrocities” in Ukraine continue.

Harris claimed that the US policy has been and will continue to be “focused on the real issue at hand”, which is the needs of the Ukrainian people.

Biden said on Friday that more than 30 countries have joined the US in tapping national oil reserves to try to settle global energy markets spooked by fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Faced with a Russian blockade of its ports, Ukraine is seeking to export the farm goods that many countries depend on via the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta. The solution is crucial both to Ukraine’s economy and to entire populations that rely on its wheat and sunflower oil.

Bucharest has confirmed that discussions were under way with Kyiv, pointing out that Constanta already handles some imports to Ukraine and exports from it.