DHAKA: Thousands of Russians were expected on Sunday to protest against the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine, in the first major anti-war rally since fighting in the former Soviet country erupted in April.

Organisers hope thousands of protesters, including many prominent personalities, would march through Moscow to highlight Russia’s direct involvement in a conflict which has claimed nearly 3,000 lives and pitted Russians against Ukrainians.

The rally dubbed ‘the peace march’ comes amid a Russian media blackout on the presence of regular troops in Ukraine.

Over the past months, national television has portrayed the Kiev authorities as a ‘fascist junta’ bent on persecuting Russian speakers.

Anyone who dared to publicly question the Kremlin’s Ukraine policy has been pilloried.

Organisers said some 50,000 were expected to attend the event, which was agreed with the Moscow authorities.

Ahead of the march, prominent Russians took to social networks with video messages to encourage their compatriots to attend.

Some quoted poems by Russia’s Osip Mandelstam and Vladimir Mayakovsky and France’s Louis Aragon and Jacques Prevert, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 2033 HRS, SEP 21, 2014