The office of the Russian president, also known as the Kremlin, urged Russians to unite around President Vladimir Putin, more than a week after he ordered an attack on Ukraine.
Anti-war protests have broken out in a number of Russian cities since the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, with police detaining more than 8,000 participants, according to OVD-Info, a rights group that tracks political arrests.
Meanwhile a number of prominent Russian figures have also joined the "chorus" of international condemnation of Russia's attack on Ukraine.
"Now is not the time to be divided," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, responding to a question about requests from public figures to end the war.
"Now is the time to unite, unite around our President," he said, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
Since Russia started what they call a “special military operation”, public figures in the land of the red bear have been divided.
"Yes, indeed, there are fierce debates among cultural figures," Peskov said. "Many support the President, sincerely support the President. There are people who completely misunderstand the essence of what is happening".
On the 9th day of the invasion, Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) after attacking it in the early hours of Friday (4/3), setting fire to an adjacent five-story training facility, Ukrainian authorities said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a tweet that Ukrainian authorities had notified that the fire at Europe's largest nuclear power plant complex had not affected "critical" equipment.