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A group of children in Russia was allegedly arrested by police and put behind bars after they attempted to lay flowers at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow.
A Facebook post by one woman, Alexandra Arkhipova, written in both Russian and English, described the events that allegedly took place on March 1 involving two Moscow women and their five children.
Police arrested children
Photos in the post appeared to show the children in the back of a police van, as well as what appeared to be a small holding cell.
The children were stated as between seven and 11 years old.
NPR reported that Arkhipova, who posted about the incident, is an anthropology expert and researcher at RANEPA university.
Arkhipova said the two mothers are Ekaterina Zavizion and Olga Alter, and they were arrested along with their kids, Liza, 11, Gosha, 11, Matvey, 9, David, 7, and Sofya, 7.
The Moscow Times reported the arrest, based on another video footage, as: "A video attachment showed one of the women explaining to a crying girl from inside a cell that 'the task is for fewer people to gather and say they're against the war'."
Placed flowers at Ukrainian embassy in Russia
The children had apparently gone to put flowers at the Ukrainian embassy with posters they supposedly created.
Various translations from Russian journalists on Twitter said the poster created by the children read either "no war," "stop war" or "no to war".
The protest, described as peaceful, ended with all of the children detained by law enforcement and held in a police van.
The children were subsequently taken to a Moscow police station and held.
The post also said phones were taken away and mentioned to the effect that the parents would lose their rights to their children as a result of this incident.
The post then asked for journalists and human rights activists to shed light on the alleged arrests.
Children released but will go to court
Arkhipova updated a few hours later: "All of them finally were released. Now they will meet a court trial."
There was no mention of charges.
Responses
The incident trended online with many reposting the allegations and photos on other social media platforms.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted the images and said it was another sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine is taking a toll on children.
Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on Feb.24, protests have broken out in numerous Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The total number of Russians arrested has been estimated to be anywhere from 2,000 to 6,000.
Such displays of dissent were unheard of under the Putin regime previously before war broke out.
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