How civil society answered the invasion by 18 March 2022
A look back at the protests, seizures and court rulings that marked the days leading up to 18 March 2022, in Ukraine and abroad.
What did public life look like in the days before 18 March 2022, the twenty-third day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine? The reports of the preceding week show a conflict fought far from the front line as well: in courtrooms, on ports and streets, and even on live television.
Protest at home and abroad
On 12 March 2022, demonstrators gathered in Melitopol to protest the abduction of the city's mayor, Ivan Fedorov. The same day, anti-war protesters in Florence, Italy, gathered to listen to a videotaped speech by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Inside Russia, dissent carried a price. On 13 March, around 250 anti-war protesters were detained for opposing the invasion. The next day, Marina Ovsyannikova, a Russian state television journalist, interrupted a live broadcast of Channel One Russia with a sign reading "No War" and urging viewers not to believe propaganda. She was promptly arrested.
In London on 14 March, anti-war protesters seized the mansion of Oleg Deripaska. Four protesters seen on its balcony were later arrested.
Sanctions and legal pressure
Governments moved against the assets of sanctioned Russian businessmen. On 12 March, Italian police seized the sailing yacht A at the Port of Trieste; its owner, Andrey Melnichenko, had been sanctioned by the European Union. On 15 March, Spanish police seized a superyacht at the Port of Barcelona owned by Sergey Chemezov, also sanctioned by the EU.
Legal and political measures followed. On 15 March, the United States Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan resolution declaring Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and calling for an investigation by the International Criminal Court. On 16 March, the International Court of Justice ordered Russia to immediately halt its invasion of Ukraine.
The human cost
The fighting continued to reach civilians and those who documented it. On 13 March, Brent Renaud, a filmmaker and photojournalist formerly affiliated with The New York Times, was shot and killed by Russian troops in Irpin, Kyiv Oblast. A colleague, another U.S. citizen, was wounded and evacuated to a hospital.
On 15 March, Russian troops stormed the Mariupol regional intensive care hospital and took around 400 people hostage, and local authorities confirmed that the damaged hospital was under Russian control.
A week in outline
Taken together, the reports from 12 to 16 March 2022 describe pressure building on several fronts: street protest, asset seizures, a US Senate resolution and a ruling from the International Court of Justice, all while civilians and journalists in Ukraine were under fire.
