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School kids in Moscow ARRESTED for protesting against country's Ukraine invasion

The primary school kids were reportedly arrested after they went to the city's Ukrainian embassy to lay flowers

A number of Russian kids were reportedly arrested for protesting against their country invading Ukraine. Pictures that surfaced on social media show primary school children in the back of a police van in Moscow. 

Among other children, the pictures show a little girl in a green hat holding a sign that says 'No War' in Russian, with small Russian and Ukrainian flags drawn around the words. Another girl in a pink puffer jacket can be seen carrying flowers. She was later pictured at a police station, with an officer at a computer behind her. The kids were arrested after they went to the city's Ukrainian embassy to lay flowers, The Sun reported.

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The pictures were shared on Twitter by Ilya Yashin, who is the Deputy of the Krasnoselsky Municipal District, according to his profile's bio. “Nothing out of the ordinary: just kids in paddy wagons behind an anti-war poster," the pictures are captioned. “This is Putin's Russia, folks. You live here.”

Reportedly, hundreds of Russians have been arrested following anti-war protests all over the country, including in Russian President Vladimir Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg. Images and videos from the protests have surfaced, along with the brutal crackdown on them by Russian police. The citizens have been hailed by many for their bravery. 

Protests reportedly broke out in 53 Russian cities as of February 24, including Moscow, Novosibirsk, and even smaller cities like Chelyabinsk. Carnegie research institute fellow Paul Stronski said, "It’s an indication they don’t want war — yet, given the level of authoritarianism in Russia, those protesters are brave people." The largest of these protests took place in St Petersburg outside the city's Palace Square as of now. Russian police reportedly detained at least 1,702 people in all, mostly in St Petersburg and Moscow.

Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov announced on television that a unit of Chechen special forces sent on a mission to assassinate Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been "eliminated". Danilov said that Ukraine received intelligence on the assassination attempt from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) agents. "And I can say that we received information from representatives of the FSB, who today have no desire to take part in this bloody war," he said.

The special unit belonged to a Chechen paramilitary organization, the Kadyrovites, which was helping Russian forces in its Ukraine invasion. "The special operation that was to be carried out directly by the Kadyrovites to eliminate our president is fully known to us today," Danilov said. Danilov added that the unit split into two, with one group seeking cover in the town of Gostomel. "One group was covered in Gostomel, another group is now, let's say, under the gun," Danilov said. He added that "the Kadyrovites' elite group, which came here specifically to eliminate our president, was directly destroyed."