safe, and of course i fear for them very much. but i hope they will be okay. well, so far she has not been charged for the actual on-air protest, but a moscow court did find her guilty of organizing an unauthorized public event for a video statement she recorded prior to her appearance. she was fined nearly $300 for that. now, one of russia s top ballerinas is also taking a stand, leaving the world famous bolshoi ballet to protest the war. olga smir nova left moscow for the netherlands, where she is joining the dutch national ballet with her first performance, in fact, already scheduled for april. the prima ballerina had been with the bolshoi for more than a decade, where she became a principal soloist. regarding the choice to leave her country, smirnova says, quote, i never thought i would be ashamed of russia.
donations came rolling in fast. tickets for this event sold out pretty much immediately. it is packed here, but not everyone is here for the music. i want to meet people with the same views as me. i want to meet with them and to feel that i m not alone with this position. reporter: 28-year-old anatoli is not alone. many here left russia in recent days, escaping a crackdown on dissent, where thousands have been detained at protests, even calling putin s invasion what it is, a war, has been criminalized. when we are posting something on social media, at least we know that nobody s going to come for us. but back home, even now they have a new law if you post something, that you can be arrested. at least we can speak up from here. reporter: like many of those here tonight, masha and daria have no plan. they just bought plane tickets and left the country. we are not feeling safe
realistic. but we need more time to get decisions in the interest of ukraine. reporter: with acts of protest growing more public in russia, president vladimir putin called some of his own citizens traitors. translator: obviously the west will try to rely on the so-called fifth column, on national traitors, on those who earn money here with us but live there. and i mean live there, not even in the geographical sense of the word but according to their thoughts, their slavish consciousness. reporter: the u.s. is working on getting more lethal aid to ukraine, which is pushing for more advanced weaponry. nato reiterating the alliance is united in the decision not to impose a no-fly zone over ukraine. we see death. we see destruction. we see human suffering in ukraine, but this can become even worse if nato took actions that actually turned this into a full-fledged war between nato and russia. reporter: oren liebermann,
there. we are afraid of this iron curtain thing. reporter: they re here to help ukraine, they say. it s the least they can do. it s very hard to feel that you are on the side of aggressor, you know? it s like you feel responsibility. you feel shame. you re also a victim of the situation because back home, it didn t feel like it s very hard to understand what can you do. reporter: the crowd spontaneously chants what they couldn t back in russia. no to war. tanya just arrived in istanbul. she said she was detained and fined in st. petersburg for taking part in a protest. she had to leave her parents behind. opposing the war has even torn apart her own family. they watch tv, and they listen to propaganda, and it s really hard because now many, many families in russia are divided between these two sides, those who are again war and
beijing during the olympics was very important, and i would think that this was discussed and that he was given sort of an okay to come here. but i don t think neither of them thought it would go that badly for russia and this long. i think only a few days. and i think the thinking then was to maybe grab key interests, that land bridge for example between russia and crimea, to establish that. but they seem to be intent on keeping on going, and, again, more death and destruction. michael bociurkiw, thank you very much for joining us live in lviv. we re going to take a quick break. more of our breaking news coverage after this. some russians go abroad to do what s not allowed at home, speaking out against the war. still ahead, we go to an anti-war concert in istanbul where a russian rap artist amplified the russian anti-war message. we ll be right back. cut. liberty mu. liline? cut.