The largest demonstrations were in Moscow, where 2,000 protesters gathered near Pushkin Square, and Saint Petersburg, where up to 1,000 protesters gathered.[35][36] Hundreds demonstrated in Yekaterinburg,[37] and there were also demonstrations in Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Perm.[38] By the end of the evening of the day of the invasion, according to the OVD-Info monitor, there had been 1,820 arrests in 58 cities, of which 1,002 were carried out in Moscow.[39] Russia's interior ministry justified these arrests with continued "coronavirus restrictions, including on public events".[40]