Hundreds of Russians arrested in crackdown as they protest against mobilisation order across dozens of cities
21 September 2022, 23:20 | Updated: 22 September 2022, 10:48
Russian police have cracked down on anti-mobilisation protests throughout the country after Putin called up 300,000 reservists to join the worsening fight against Ukraine.
More than 800 people were arrested across 37 cities as they demonstrated against the mobilisation, according to OVD-Info, a human rights group in the country.
Russia has enacted harsh laws against criticising the war, which it continues to refer to as a "special military operation".
Moscow and St Petersburg were among the protest hotspots. In the capital, more than a dozen arrests were made in the first 15 minutes of a protest, as body armour-clad police tackled demonstrators and hauled some away.
"I'm not afraid. I’m not afraid of anything. The most valuable thing that they can take from us is the life of our children. I won’t give them life of my child," said one, who declined to give her name to the Associated Press.
"It won’t help, but it's my civic duty to express my stance. No to war!"
Some of the 40 protesters in Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest city in Russia, were hauled onto a bus by police, while a woman in a wheelchair shouted of Putin: "Goddamn bald-headed nut job. He's going to drop a bomb on us, and we’re all still protecting him. I’ve said enough."
There has been a rush to book flights amid fears men of fighting age may soon be prevented from leaving the country as they try to dodge any call up. The drastic move, a major escalation, comes after a Ukrainian lightning counter attack liberated swathes of territory and made Putin's position as autocrat more vulnerable.
Riot police face off against protesters in St Petersburg after reservists called to war
Putin used an address to the nation to insist he was "not bluffing" about the use of weapons like nuclear weapons as he warned his nation would "protect its sovereignty".
There are fears an annexation of regions captured from Ukraine, like Donetsk and Luhansk, could see Russia attempt to justify the use of nuclear weapons to stop them being recaptured.
Putin accused the West of engaging in "nuclear blackmail", an ironic claim given the West's restraint in comparison to various Russian officials' and media personalities' remarks about weapons of mass destruction, and noted "statements of some high-ranking representatives of the leading Nato states about the possibility of using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia". He did not specify what he meant by that.
And he added: "To those who allow themselves such statements regarding Russia, I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for separate components and more modern than those of Nato countries, and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal."
His address - the first since troops invaded in February - comes a day after puppet regimes in Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans to hold votes on becoming parts of Russia.
The Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war following recent Ukrainian successes on the battlefield.
The referendums will start on Friday in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk areas.
Western leaders have condemned plans for referendums to be held in parts of Ukraine.
Speaking after Putin's televised statement, US President Joe Biden said the war in Ukraine was "chosen by one man".
He added Russia has "attempted to erase a sovereign state from the map", adding that the war is about "extinguishing Ukraine's right to exist as a state, plain and simple".
French president Emmanuel Macron says the votes would never be accepted by the international community.
The UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Mr Putin's actions were "an admission that his invasion is failing".
"No amount of threats and propaganda can hide the fact that Ukraine is winning this war, the international community are united and Russia is becoming a global pariah."
Read more: Liz Truss pledges £2.3bn in military aid for Ukraine as politics returns
Nick Ferrari puts Foreign Office Minister Gillian Keegan on the spot amid Russia-Ukraine war
Meanwhile, Foreign Office minister Gillian Keegan has slammed Mr Putin's "lies" and said the UK must help Ukraine defend its freedom.
She told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: "This is more of Putin's lies. It's a rewriting of history, and let me be clear Russia is responsible for this illegal war."
She said the UK is "steadfast" in our support for Ukraine as the war enters its seventh month.
"The Ukrainian people have been fighting this for more than six months now and will continue to fight with our help," she said.
She said discussions will continue to seek a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine war but admitted Mr Putin's comments are a "worrying escalation".
"Some of the language there was quite concerning at the end and obviously we would urge for calm," she told Sky News.
Putin warns West as he announces partial mobilisation for Russian citizens
