The antiwar demonstration was organized by liberal parties, but there appears to be some participation by Russian nationalists.
A good long-read about the split in the Russian far-right over Ukraine here.
Photojournalist Evgeny Feldman reports from Moscow: "From one side of the police line protesters shout 'Putin theif!' From the other, 'Crimea is ours.'"
A reminder that our Russian Service is offering live video coverage of the antiwar march in Moscow, which is officially beginning now.
As several thousand gather in Moscow's Pushkin Square for an antiwar demonstration, pro-Russian separatists have also been active today. A hashtag for the march (#маршмира) has been flooded with pornographic images and a number of people holding the flags of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk republics have been spotted at the rally.
A large banner featuring opposition activists has been hung from the square, apparently by pro-Kremlin activists. It reads, "March of the traitors."
And "Novorossiya" flags have been hung along the route of the march.
The tweet on top, from pro-Putin media entrepreneur Konstantin Rykov, says "Patriots wait for Banderovtsi in Moscow." The tweet on the bottom, from Savik Shuster, a popular Ukrainian TV host, says, "fascists on Pushkin Square await peaceful demonstrators."
Supporters of pro-Russian separatists are also apparently gathering in Moscow's Pushkin Square, where the antiwar march is set to begin at 4PM Moscow time.
Latest from Ukraine, via our news desk:
A Ukrainian military spokesman says Kyiv will not pull back its troops from the front line in eastern Ukraine until a new cease-fire is fully implemented.
Andriy Lysenko, the spokeman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said on September 21 that two soldiers were killed and at least eight injured in the past day despite the cease-fire.
He added, "If [Ukrainian forces] are withdrawn, it will be done simultaneously with the Russian troop withdrawal."
Russia denies having troops in Ukraine.
Lysenko said insurgents fired at Ukrainian forces in 22 places on September 20.
Those reports came the same day Ukrainians and insurgents in Minsk forged an agreement to create a buffer zone on the front line.
The deal would entail each side halting advances and pulling back heavy weapons, something Lysenko said Kyiv is currently not comtemplating. (AFP and AP)
Vitaly Milonov, who is best known for introducing the law against so-called "gay propaganda" in Saint Petersburg, here being confronted by protesters. "Remind me when Ukraine was a state," he says. Questioning the existence of a Ukrainian nation (separate from a Russian one) is a common refrain of the Russian far-right.
Saint Petersburg protesters outside Kazan Cathedral as police continue to warn protesters that their rally in unsanctioned.