A popular rapper, Ivan Dryomin, has left Russia to protest his country’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.
Dryomin, known as Face, wrote on Instagram on March 12 that he is currently in an unspecified foreign country, adding that he will not return to Russia.
Dryomin, a native of Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan, condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and called on the Kremlin to stop "destroying cities and lives."
"My loved ones and I were forced out of our own home, our own land; we were forced out by a state that I refuse to consider as mine as of this moment," he wrote.
Russian journalists, doctors, writers, celebrities , and others have issued several open letters in recent days, urging Russian authorities to stop the country’s invasion of Ukraine.