HOW COULD THEY?
Heartbreaking moment girl, 7, cries through bars for her mum after being arrested at anti-war demo in Russia
THIS is the heartbreaking moment a girl, 7, wept through prison bars after she and her mum were arrested at an anti-war demo in Russia.
Haunting video shows the girl's mum trying to explain to the tearful girl why they were detained by armed police for opposing Putin's war in Ukraine.
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Sofya, 7, weeps as she speaked to her mum Ekaterina Zavizion after the pair were detained with a group of protesters in St Petersburg.
The girl clutches her mother’s hand through the metal grill and is clearly distraught.
“Everything is going to be good, do you trust me?" the mum tells Sofya.
She replies: “Because they do not allow many people to gather together so they don’t say they are against the war.”
The girl then askes "will you get out" and pleads with her mum "when?" as tears well up in her eyes.
Ekaterina and Sofya were detained along with with mum Olga Alter and their other children, Liza Gladkova, 11, Gosha Petrov, 11, Matvey Petrov, 9, and David Petrov, 7.
The police were first keeping them first in a police vehicle,, and brought them to the Presnenskoye police station.
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Ekaterina told of the "hell" she suffered as her children screamed and wept when they were detained.
“I had watched videos showing the horrible inhumane bombing in Kharkiv - and realised I could no longer sit under a bush shaking and pretend nothing was happening," she said.
"My heart is tearing with sorrow and pain.
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“I had the most peaceful intentions - to lay flowers in the memory of civilians and children who had perished in Ukraine.”
She wanted to show “we are not indifferent” and that “we are dying here too from sorrow and pain.”
On being detained with her children, she said: “It was surreal, I was not prepared for it. The children started screaming, it was hell.
It comes as...
- The dictator of Belarus has accidentally revealed that Moldova could be the next country to be invaded.
- Russia issued a chilling warning for Ukrainians to flee parts of Kyiv ahead of another massive bombardment.
- Putin's nuclear forces held nuclear drills with subs and land-based missiles, the country's navy said.
- Russian marines mutinied on a warship as they refused to fight against Ukraine
- A boy is fighting for his life, unaware that his sister and parents were shot dead by Russians.
- Former army snipers are among dozens of British veterans vowing to take on Putin's invaders.
- Boris Johnson accused Putin of killing children and using "barbaric" tactics in Ukraine
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of war crimes over the attacks of Kharkiv
“God, I will never forget those minutes.”
She said: “Perhaps it would have been safer for my family to stay silent and not go anywhere."
The incident came as thousands have been detained around Russia for protesting against the war.
Vladimir Putin’s arch-foe Alexei Navalny today called from his jail cell for daily protests at 2pm.
The mums and kids were held when they went to lay flowers at the city's Ukrainian embassy, it is claimed.
A girl wearing a green hat holds a sign saying "No War" in Russian with small Russian and Ukrainian flags painted around the words.
Another girl in a pink jacket carries flowers and appears close to tears in the van.
The same girl was pictured later apparently in a police station, with an officer behind her at a computer.
The pictures were shared on Twitter by Ilya Yashin, who wrote: “Nothing out of the ordinary: just kids in paddy wagons behind an anti-war poster.
“This is Putin's Russia, folks. You live here.”
Despite Putin’s ruthless quashing of any dissent against his regime, thousands of anti-war protesters have taken to the streets across Russia.
Nearly a million people signed an online petition demanding an end to the war.
Anti-war demonstrators in Russia have faced mass detentions while authorities have restricted access to social media and threatened to shut down independent news sites.
“All of them were detained by the police,” she said.
The police were keeping them first in a police vehicle,, and brought them to the Presnenskoye police station.
“Phones were taken away from parents, and the policemen are shouting at the parents threatening these brave mums and their children, that the kids could be put into care right now, and these mothers would lose their parental rights.”
The video shows one of the mothers Ekaterina Zavizion and her daughter Sofya, seven, talking through the metal cage of a cell.
The girl clutches her mother’s hand through the metal grill as she is clearly distraught.
On Monday, the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests counted at least 350 detentions of protesters in 13 Russian cities.
Over the past five days of protests, more than 6,000 people been detained, according to OVD-Info.
One demonstrator scrawled ‘Adolf Putin’ on the wall of an underground station in Saint Petersburg, the Russian President's hometown.
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Among the high-profile Russian critics of Putin's war is the daughter of Chelsea's owner Roman Abramovich.
Sofia Abramovich, 27, posted an Instagram picture that read: "Putin wants a war with Ukraine," crossing out the word Russia.
"The biggest and most successful lie of Kremlin's propaganda is that most Russian stand with Putin [sic]," the post went on.
In an effort to stifle critical voices, Russian authorities have restricted access to Facebook, which has played an important role in amplifying dissent.
Internet users also reported problems with accessing Twitter.
Russian officials have also pressured the media to cover the invasion in strict accordance with the official line.
They have also bemoaned the reports that described Russia's attack on Ukraine as an invasion or a war as untrue.
Meanwhile, in a poignant show of global unity against Moscow to protest against the war, diplomats walked out at a United Nations meeting in Geneva during a speech by Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
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Dozens of officials, including those from Britain, the US and the EU left the 49th session of the Human Rights Council.
Meanwhile, The Hague is investigating Russia for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” after they cluster-bombed a nursery school.
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