She went to the square with a placard against the war: 83-year-old blockade survivor detained in St. Petersburg

An elderly woman went to Palace Square with an anti-war poster.

This was reported by the St. Petersburg edition of "Paper" with reference to its correspondent.

According to the publication, the woman was immediately approached by police officers and warned of possible consequences if she unfurled the poster. Despite this, Vasilyeva still took out a poster with anti-war slogans. After that she was detained, put into a patrol car and taken to the 78th Police Department of the Central District of St. Petersburg.

Lyudmila Vasilyeva was born on 22 April 1941 in Leningrad and survived the siege of the city. She lived in St Petersburg all her life and worked at defence enterprises, including the Krylov Institute, where she was involved in providing components for submarines. In 2014, after Russia's annexation of Crimea, she quit her job after disagreeing with the authorities' policy, and since then she has been actively involved in protests against repression and military action.

With the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Vasilyeva went to Nevsky Prospekt with a placard "No to War" and was detained. Three days later, she again went to the action together with her granddaughter, and both were detained again. The third time the activist was detained for singing the song "Sunny Circle" on Nevsky Prospekt.

Despite the pressure, Vasilyeva continued to participate in the protests in St. Petersburg. In May this year, the 83-year-old blockade-breaker was fined under an administrative article on "discrediting the army" for her stance against the war.