Children arrested in Russia after taking flowers to Ukrainian embassy and holding ‘no to war’ signs.

Russian police reportedly arrested school children for protesting the war in Ukraine, according to The Independent.

Russian police arrested five children between ages seven and 11 and their mothers for laying flowers and holding anti-war posters outside the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow on Tuesday.

Ekaterina Zavizion, one of the moms arrested wrote in a Facebook post that after witnessing the bombing of Kharkiv, she and her friend, Olga, could “no longer ‘sit and tremble under the bushes’ and pretend that nothing is happening”.

There was no one home to watch her children so she decided to take them with her to the embassy to lay some flowers.

“Our intentions were the most peaceful – to lay flowers in memory of dead civilians and children in Ukraine, and shoot a little video with homemade children’s posters – no to war – for my (friend in Ukraine), for the whole Ukrainian people – to support, to say that we care, that we also die here from grief and pain.”

Zavizion said employees raked their flowers away with their feet and told them to leave.

She was later arrested infront of her children as they cried. She pleaded with officers to allow her to comfort her children. Instead, she was placed in a police van with her children, her friend, and her friend’s children and taken to the police station.

Images show the children sitting in the back of the police van with their mothers and one girl holding a ‘no to war’ sign. Another photo shows the same girl standing up against the bars of a metal cage in the van.

“A video showed one of the women explaining to a crying girl from inside a cell that ‘the task is for fewer people to gather and say they’re against the war,’ ” The Moscow Times reports.

“I constantly reassured the kids, saying we are safe together, although I didn’t believe in it anymore,” Zavizion wrote.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted the photos of the children, writing that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is at war with children.”

Alexandra Arkhipova, an anthropologist who works at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration said police allegedly threatened to strip the women of custody over the five children.

The group spent four hours in custody and face a trial and fine on unspecified charges.

According to independent Russian human rights group Ovd-Info, more than 7,600 people have been detained at anti-war demonstrations in the country since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began a week ago.