Russia has reportedly detained almost 2,700 protesters since Thursday

Russia has detained 2,692 anti-war protesters since the invasion of Ukraine began on Thursday, according to Russian human rights media group OVD-Info, CNN reported Saturday.

At least 1,370 of those protesters were detained in Moscow, but protests were ongoing in at least 27 Russian cities.

The New York Times reported Friday that, in a move likely to make it more difficult to organize protests, Russia was restricting access to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

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Hundreds of protesters flooded Moscow's Pushkin Square on Thursday night, while others marched in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk and in Russian President Vladimir Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg.

Pro-Ukraine demonstrations were also held in London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the world throughout the weekend.

At the Dubai Championships on Friday, Russian tennis player Andrey Rublev wrote the phrase "no war please" in English on the lens of a television camera after winning a match.

On the eve of the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered an address in Russian in which he appealed directly to the Russian people. "If the leadership of Russia does not want to sit at the table with us to make peace, perhaps it will sit at the table with you," Zelensky said. "Does Russia want a war? I would very much like an answer to this question. But that answer depends only on you, citizens of the Russian Federation."