Moscow has removed 700,000 children from Ukraine, says Russian MP
Russia has brought 700,000 children from the conflict zones of Ukraine into Russian territory, the head of the international committee in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, has said.
Grigory Karasin said on his Telegram messaging channel late on Sunday:
In recent years, 700,000 children have found refuge with us, fleeing the bombing and shelling from the conflict areas in Ukraine.
Reuters also reports that Moscow says its program of bringing children from Ukraine into Russian territory is to protect orphans and children abandoned in conflict zones.
However, Ukraine says many children have been illegally deported and the US says thousands of children have been forcibly removed from their homes.
Most of the movement of people and children occurred in the first few months of the war, which began in February 2022.
In July 2022, the US estimated that Russia had “forcibly deported” 260,000 children, while Ukraine’s ministry of integration of occupied territories says 19,492 Ukrainian children are currently considered illegally deported.
Key events
The European Union is considering a proposal to allow a Russian bank under sanctions to carve-out a subsidiary that would reconnect to the global financial network as a sop to Moscow, the Financial Times has reported.
The move would be aimed at safeguarding the Black Sea grain deal that allows Ukraine to export food to global markets, the newspaper said on Monday.
The plan, which was proposed by Moscow through negotiations brokered by the UN, would allow the bank to create a subsidiary to handle payments related to grain exports, the FT said, citing people with knowledge of the matter, Reuters reports.
The new entity would be permitted to use the global Swift financial messaging system, which was closed to the largest Russian banks following the Ukraine invasion last year.
Russia’s envoy to the United Nations in Geneva said there were no grounds to maintain the “status quo” of the Black Sea grain deal that is set to expire on 18 July, the Russian news outlet Izvestia reported on Monday.
Reuters reports that envoy Gennady Gatilov told the outlet that the implementation of Russia’s conditions for the extensions of the agreement was “stalling”. Those conditions included the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the Swift banking payment system.
Gatilov told Izvestia:
Russia has repeatedly extended the deal in the hope of positive changes. However, what we are seeing now does not give us grounds to agree to maintaining the status quo.
The Black Sea deal, brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the UN and Turkey in July last year, aimed to prevent a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain trapped by Russia’s invasion to be safely exported from Black Sea ports.
The UN said last week it was concerned no new ships had been registered under the Black Sea deal since 26 June despite applications by 29 vessels.
President Vladimir Putin has suspended Russia’s participation in the pact but both sides have pledged to continue to respect its limits and there since has been “direct contact” between Moscow and Washington on the issue.
Moscow has removed 700,000 children from Ukraine, says Russian MP
Russia has brought 700,000 children from the conflict zones of Ukraine into Russian territory, the head of the international committee in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, has said.
Grigory Karasin said on his Telegram messaging channel late on Sunday:
In recent years, 700,000 children have found refuge with us, fleeing the bombing and shelling from the conflict areas in Ukraine.
Reuters also reports that Moscow says its program of bringing children from Ukraine into Russian territory is to protect orphans and children abandoned in conflict zones.
However, Ukraine says many children have been illegally deported and the US says thousands of children have been forcibly removed from their homes.
Most of the movement of people and children occurred in the first few months of the war, which began in February 2022.
In July 2022, the US estimated that Russia had “forcibly deported” 260,000 children, while Ukraine’s ministry of integration of occupied territories says 19,492 Ukrainian children are currently considered illegally deported.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. This is Adam Fulton and here’s a rundown on the latest developments in a week that is set to reach 500 days since Moscow’s forces invaded the country.
Russia has brought 700,000 children from the conflict zones of Ukraine into Russian territory, a senior Russian MP has said.
Grigory Karasin, the head of the international committee in the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, said on Telegram that that number was from “recent years” as children fled the fighting in Ukraine.
More on that story shortly. In other news:
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Ukraine has said Russian troops are advancing in four areas in the east of the country amid “fierce fighting” but reports that Kyiv’s forces are moving forward in the south. Russian troops were advancing near Avdiivka, Mariinka, Lyman and Svatove, said the deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar. “Fierce fighting is going on everywhere,” she wrote on social media on Sunday. Russian accounts said Moscow’s forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks near villages ringing Bakhmut and in areas farther south, including the strategic hilltop town of Vuhledar.
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The US president, Joe Biden, will travel to Europe in a week for a three-nation trip, including a Nato summit, focused on reinforcing the international coalition backing Ukraine amid its counteroffensive against Russia. Biden is set to depart on Sunday 9 July for Britain and then head to Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, for the meeting of Nato leaders, followed by a one-day visit to Helsinki for talks with his Nordic counterparts, the White House has said.
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A top Russian propagandist has accused Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin of going “off the rails” after receiving billions in public funds, as Moscow’s new narrative takes shape after Wagner’s brief mutiny. “Prigozhin has gone off the rails because of big money,” Dmitry Kiselev, one of the main faces of the Russian propaganda machine, said on his weekly television show on Sunday. Prigozhin led his forces in a short-lived rebellion against Russia’s top military brass just over a week ago in a major embarrassment for the Kremlin.
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Four civilians were injured by Russian shelling in the southern city of Kherson, the prosecutor general’s office said on Sunday, including two in a direct hit on a high-rise building. Russian forces fired on the residential area from the occupied east bank of the Dnipro River, also reportedly damaging civilian infrastructure.
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Award-winning Ukrainian writer and war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina, 37, has died after being wounded in a Russian missile strike in Kramatorsk, the freedom of expression group PEN has said. The attack last Tuesday destroyed the Ria Pizza restaurant in the eastern Ukrainian city, killing another 12 people, including four children, and wounding dozens.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy paid tribute in Odesa to those serving in the navy on Ukrainian Navy Day on Sunday in a video posted on Twitter. The Ukrainian president said: “The enemy will in no way dictate its terms in the Black Sea.”
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Two British peers were among 50 people who attended a party organised by the Russian ambassador to the UK at his residence in west London last month to mark the creation of a Russia independent of the Soviet Union. The Conservative Lord Balfe and crossbencher Lord Skidelsky attended the event at which the Russian envoy, Andrei Kelin, spoke and sought to justify the invasion of Ukraine, according to the Sunday Times.
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Yevgeny Prigozhin’s media holding company is to shut down, the director of one of its outlets said. Patriot Media, whose most prominent outlet was the RIA FAN news site, had taken a strongly nationalist, pro-Kremlin editorial line while also providing positive coverage of Prigozhin and his Wagner group.
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Energy giants TotalEnergies and Shell have defended activities linked to Russia after a critical report into their trading in natural gas despite the war in Ukraine. The campaign group Global Witness said TotalEnergies was the third-biggest player in Russian liquified natural gas last year and Shell the fourth, behind two Russian companies. Both companies said on Sunday they were tied to ongoing contracts despite pulling out of Russian partnerships after Ukraine was invaded last year.
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Poland will send 500 police officers to its border with Belarus, Poland’s interior minister, Mariusz Kamiński, has said. Warsaw earlier announced a tightening of security because of concerns over the Wagner group’s presence in Belarus.
