No to war!

Paris: A number of prominent Russians are echoing a chorus of global celebrities condemning Moscow’s war on Ukraine, with some already beginning to suffer the consequences for defying the Kremlin line.

When Russia annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014, hundreds of artists signed a petition organised by the ministry of culture to back the move. But this time, the consensus appears more shaky: Since President Vladimir Putin launched war on Ukraine, big Russian cities have, unusually, become the scene of rare protests and police retaliating with mass arrests. "Fear and pain. No to war," wrote Ivan Urgant, the usually smiley king of the late night TVchat shows in Russia on Instagram with an all-black picture.