Police arrest hundreds of Russian protesters at 'no to war' gatherings after Putin announced drafting 300,000 more reservists

• Protests have sparked across Russia after Putin announced partial military mobilization.
• An independent monitoring group said police have already detained over 500 people.

Russians across the country took to the streets on Wednesday to protest President Vladimir Putin's announcement calling for the "partial mobilization" of the country's military reservists as setbacks in Ukraine mount.

In a rare televised speech on Wednesday, Putin said the mobilization — which will see 300,000 reservists drafted — is going to start immediately, in a move that will likely escalate Moscow's devastating war in Ukraine that appears set to continue through Ukraine's harsh winter. The Russian leader also threatened to use nuclear weapons during his remarks, and baselessly accused the West of provocation.

Hours after his speech, protests flared up across Russia, with videos from the various scenes showing people chant "no to war" and other anti-Putin rhetoric. According to the independent monitoring group OVD-Info, at least 525 arrests were made in various cities as of nearly 8:30 p.m. local time in Moscow.

Some footage appears to show local police officers aggressively detain people, while others watch and continue to chant. Associated Press journalists reported witnessing arrests being made within 15 minutes of a protest starting.

Moscow's prosecutor's office warned earlier on Wednesday that people joining anti-war protests could face up to 15 years in prison, CNN reported. Russia has passed laws that criminalize dissent over the war with harsh penalties.

The following images are photographs taken at a protest in Moscow on Wednesday evening.

Wednesday night's protests were reminiscent of similar demonstrations immediately after Putin ordered his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. After his televised address that day, Russian citizens in dozens of cities began to protest, with scores getting arrested.

Meanwhile, Putin's mobilization announcement on Wednesday was met with harsh criticism and condemnation by a slew of Ukrainian and Western officials, including President Joe Biden who slammed Putin for escalating Russia's "outrageous" war in Ukraine during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The mobilization announcement comes a day after Moscow-backed authorities in four regions in southern and eastern Ukraine said they would hold referendums on joining Russia later this week, which have been decried by the West as illegitimate.

This week's developments take shape as senior US defense officials and British intelligence have warned Russia struggles with a personnel shortage — all in the face of weeks of punishing Ukrainian counteroffensives, which have liberated swaths of territory previously occupied by Russian troops in Ukraine's northeastern and southern regions.